Great potential, weak "lead" performance

Rating: 5/10 (13 November 2007)

This movie had everything going for it, except for weak writing and acting for Sam Waterson's part. He browbeats a man with a family in a vulnerable position into entering into a life-threatening and altering situation for his own gain and never apologizes for it until the last second of the film, when the reaction to the apology is less than believable, despite the fantastic performance of the actor who accepts the apology.
The other actors are good, but Waterson comes across as weak, perhaps because of his over the top performance during virtually every scene, perhaps because of poor writing (curiously, only for his part), but when the "lead" of the film is weak, it's hard to build something decent around it.
At one point in the movie Waterson's character says that half of his award belongs to his friend who is presumably dead. It makes you want to turn off the TV and be sick, because anyone with a conscience following the movie realizes that all of the award should go to his friend. One character in the movie calls him on it briefly and he tries to (angrily, as always) deflect the argument by ignoring his actions back in Cambodia that led to his friend being captured, and focuses on what he's doing now to find his friend, which won't do much good anyway. Apart from getting the man's family out (which we can speculate with a considerable amount of ease, was done only to secure his colleague's trust, to get him to stay for an almost certain doom), the journalist does very little indeed for his friend, apart from barking at him when things don't go his way. The film is as much a study in the art of avarice and cowardice on the part of Waterson's character as it is the courage of the Cambodian journalist.
(It should be noted, that in my opinion Waterson's performance on Law and Order is top notch, and it makes you wish that he had that kind of patience and talent on call 20 odd years ago when he did this project.)