Product: Gun Shy (2000)
Rating: 5.0
More than meets the eye
I saw this film, knowing very little about it, and was quite rewarded. It is inevitably compared to Groose Pointe Blank, Analyse This, etc., which is not a bad crowd to be in; however, the film stands up very well by virtue of strong performances by Liam Neeson and Oliver Platt, both of whom have a penchant for taking complex characters and making them become believable and engrossing (admittedly, Platt's opening scene is a bit over the top, but he's a good enough actor to get beyond it).What makes this film different from other "therapy" films is the well-wrought friendship that emerges between the two "rivals," who eventually turn their backs on the whole system that sets them in opposition to one another.The film is also the big screen emergence of Eric Blakeney, who has had a long run as a television writer. For a first film, it presents a very mature vision and strong sense of the image/narrative relationship, as well as convincing emotional range. Blakeney is a name we should remember, and look for.