Harry Donovan: Jason Patric (Speed 2, Sleepers, The Lost Boys)
Marieke: Irčne Jacob (Three Colours Red, The Double Life of Veronique)
Harry's father: Rod Steiger (Doctor Zhivago, The Specialist, Mars Attacks!)
John: Ian Holm (The Fifth Element, Naked Lunch)
Incognito stars Jason Patric as Harry Donovan, a highly-skilled
artist who is asked by three businessmen, two English and one Chinese, who have
heard of his reputation, to paint a Rembrandt for them. For his work they will
pay him $50,000 now, and another $500,000 on delivery. So Harry sets off for
Paris to do plenty of research on the artist, searching for the inspiration to
pick one of the many paintings to base his latest work on. While there he
misses his father, Rod Steiger, last seen in the sci-fi comedy
Mars Attacks!, who tries to hide his heart condition from his son.
Later at a cafe, he literally bumps into Marieke (Irčne Jacob), a young
art student who offers to buy him a coffee after spilling one over his
sketchings. He declines, but they meet again the next day while she discusses
art with two male friends. Interupting the conversation by shoving in his
opinions where they're not wanted, he causes a scene and leaves, with Marieke
following behind. After a day spent together, a brief passionate affair ensues
in the hotel reception, but the next day she leaves just as he wakes up...never
to be seen again ?
With the painting completed after a month's hard work spent in Amsterdam,
Harry takes it to London, back to his 'employers', where they have arranged
for some professional art critics to give their opinion. All are convinced it's
a Rembrandt apart from one - Marieke, clearly not a student as she first told
him. After she leaves, the men refuse to pay the asking price and one produces
a gun to persuade him to leave. Harry overpowers him, grabs hold of the gun
and lets off a round without looking too closely at where the shot went,
then swaps the gun for his painting and leaves, catching up with Marieke
and now on the run for both the theft of an original painting - as claimed
by those in the know - and, more importantly, murder, as the Chinese man
got in the way of the bullet.
When the authorities eventually catch up with Harry, he's put in the dock
and has to prove that the painting he's created is a fake in order to clear
his name.
The curious thing about this film is that the first hour plays like a
foreign arthouse film - idyllic settings, gorgeous landscape shots,
a slow but steady drama building in stature, and arthouse-film regular
Irčne Jacob. Even more curious as the film is directed by one of Hollywood's
well-known action-meisters, John Badham, who you wouldn't normally
associate with arthouse films apart from the Americanised scene-for-scene
remake-with-alternative-cop-out-ending of Luc Besson's Nikita known
as The Assassin in the UK and Point of No Return in the US.
It then follows that while the first hour will appease the arthouse fans,
the second half abandons that ideal and, for a while, heads American-style
as Harry and Marieke go on the run with typical bad language here and there
and MTV-style direction, before it slows down again in the final 20 minutes
for the courtroom scene.
Jason Patric, recently seen on the big screen in the summer blockbuster
Speed 2: Cruise Control, replacing Keanu Reeves, and the true-life
drama Sleepers alongside Brad Pitt and Robert DeNiro, equips himself
well coming across during the film's length convincingly as an artist, but on
reflection afterwards you do wonder whether any of the Hollywood brat-pack
would take up such an occupation.
Irčne Jacob is an excellent and attractive actress who won't be too familiar
to anyone more used to the sort of film John Badham usually turns out, coming
to light in Krzysztof Kiewlowski's The Double Life of Veronique,
one of the most captivating films I've seen in which she plays the roles of
two women leading completely different lives in different parts of the world,
but are identical in appearance. Each feels they are missing something in
their lives until the film reaches a poignant moment when each catches a glimpse
of the other, and again in Three Colours Red, the final part in his Three
Colours Trilogy based on the colours and principals behind the French national
flag.
Rod Steiger's role in the film is small but important as you'll see, and
Ian Holm has a cameo as the man who introduces the businessmen to
Harry's talent.
Overall, this is a film that is definitely worth a watch. Knowing of Badham's
take on Nikita, this film also feels like a remake of a foreign film
but with a few slam-bang action points thrown in for the Americans, but if
you go in expecting a gentle drama with a story you can forgive those parts,
but do not go expecting anything action-packed from start to finish.
What is a shame about the film is that it makes you wonder just how much
Warner Bros. are bothered about promoting it. Before I knew of the preview
screening I had never heard of the film, a rarity for a film buff such as
myself. Also, Warner had sent out no press packs for the film and there was
no review in my favourite film magazine, Empire.
As such, this film may well end up with a limited release showing for a couple
of weeks before disappearing, only to resurface on video in the cramped
pan-and-scan format in an instant losing the impressive widescreen visuals.
Hence, all the more reason that you should put to one side the film you would
have seen from November 14th and watch this one instead.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
