Mediocre, mediocre, mediocre

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2000)

I can't get that word out of my head: mediocre. Mediocre is what 'The Hurricane' is to me. The story is sometimes very good and profound (Washington in Prison, his visions on life, his conversations with Lesra) but just as often very weak (the Canadians are portrayed as very silly people).
The movie starts with some comprehensible yet unnecessary messing around with time. I wonder why they just didn't tell the story in a chronological way. Obviously this was meant to speed up the story and to make it more interesting but for me it was just annoying. Some flash-backs (yet occasionally) could have been worth the effort but the contrast was to big in comparison with the second half of the movie that is almost entirely consecutive and chronological.
As I said the Canadians were portrayed as silly almost naive people and so was Lesra. The actor who played him has my sympathy though...
The movies ending was completely predictable and extremely American Disney-esque with the scene in which Rubin's fellow prisoners start to cheer from happiness as its most sad example.
Washington was good, but that doesn't save the movie. It is based on a true story so I won't mock with the movie's screenplay.
Out of 10 I'd give it 6.5 points.