Precise details can make a lot of baloney easier to swallow, and so it is with The Sentinel, an assassination plot that thickens with style.
Michael Douglas plays Pete Garrison, a secret service agent on duty so long that he took a bullet for former US president Ronald Reagan. Garrison is seemingly the last guy who could be accused of plotting to kill a US president, but that's the jam The Sentinel places him in, and it's a measure of the screenplay's effectiveness that we're not sure for a few minutes if he's innocent.
His chief accuser is fellow agent David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland), who has a personal grudge against Garrison for an alleged marital indiscretion. Sex (and how to cover it up) is always an issue in Douglas' best roles, as it is here, since Garrison is having an affair with the first lady, Sarah Ballentine (Kim Basinger). Keeping their romance secret is how Garrison stumbles into this mess and plays a key role in its conclusion.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX
Right away, we know The Sentinel won't be entirely logical. Neither Garrison nor Ballentine would ever find themselves in this situation, and Breckinridge's trust of his colleague turns too quickly. However, director Clark Johnson displays so much attention to secret service mentality, small details such as surveillance and pursuit techniques, he enables viewers to buy into the falsehoods wrapped inside the reality. The Sentinel is slightly better than In the Line of Fire in that regard.
Unlike that consistently thrilling film, The Sentinel sags when the villains are revealed. Nobody on the wrong side has the scary flair of John Malkovich's assassin. No solid motive for killing the president is offered, not even insanity, despite occasional optical effects recalling familiar, unstable threats.
The chase is everything here, and screenwriter George Nolfi, working from Gerald Petievich's novel, spins a nail-nibbler.
Garrison's experience in the secret service keeps him one step ahead of his pursuers at every turn, resulting in several satisfying a-ha moments. Johnson may play a bit fast and loose with cellular telephone technology, but, again, the overall good sense pushes doubt aside.
It also helps that Nolfi doesn't allow cliches to intrude; when we see Eva Longoria (TV's Desperate Housewives) cast as a new agent, we expect her to become a love interest or a damsel in distress, and neither occurs. The movie keeps things together until the final few minutes, but by then we're sold on the story's possibilities.
The Sentinel is slickly produced, solidly acted and energetically edited by Cindy Mollo. It's standard material that doesn't quite follow standard operating procedure, and that makes a notable difference that a lot of other filmmakers could learn from.
The Sentinel
Directed by: Clark Johnson
Starring: Michael Douglas (Pete Garrison), Kiefer Sutherland (David Breckinridge), Eva Longoria (Jill Marin), Martin Donovan (William Montrose), Ritchie Coster (The Handler), Kim Basinger (first lady Sarah Ballentine)
Running time: 108 minutes
Taiwan Release: Today
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