The Saint (1997)
DIRECTOR: Philip Noyce
CAST: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Sherbedgia, Valery Nikolaev, Michael Byrne, Henry Goodman, Alun Armstrong, Charlotte Cornwell
REVIEW:
An adaptation of the 1960s television series, which was itself an adaptation of Leslie Charteris’ series of novels, The Saint is a fairly lightweight and insubstantial international spy caper that comes off a bit like second-rate James Bond (an irony on multiple levels, as Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were in part inspired by Charteris’ Saint novels, and the television series starred future 007 Roger Moore). The Saint is an enjoyable enough diversion, but doesn’t make much of an impression alongside higher-level spy thrillers.
The titular less-than-saintly “Saint” (Val Kilmer) takes his name(s) from a long list of Catholic saints. Who is he really? “No one knows, least of all me”, he half-jokes at one point, but his primary identity is Simon Templar, which he picks out for himself in the film’s prologue showing his rough childhood with other orphans in a positively Dickensian Catholic school in the Far East where, like Kunta Kinte, he’s lashed for refusing to acknowledge the other name assigned to him. In the present, he’s a freelance international spy and thief and master of disguise who (of course) has a Swiss bank account he’s pushing toward the $50 million mark he’s set for himself so he can retire. His latest assignment sends him to Oxford to snatch the cold fusion notes of idealistic scientist Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue)—after seducing her, of course—for Russian oil magnate Ivan Tretiak (Rade Sherbedgia), who has orchestrated a gas shortage in Russia, scheming to drive the Russian people to the brink of mass freezing before swooping in with cold fusion as their savior, the better to get himself installed as President. But of course, in tried-and-true fashion, this last job hits a hiccup when Simon blurs the lines between pretending to romance Emma and falling for her for real.
The Saint is the most fun when Simon is allowed to be naughty. Val Kilmer seems to be enjoying himself switching between an endless series of disguises, wigs, and accents, playing (among others) a balding bucktoothed obnoxious reporter, a foppish effeminate German, and at one point confronting Rade Sherbedgia disguised as none other than Rade Sherbedgia, and seducing Emma as the alluring and mysterious Thomas Moore, who with his flowing locks and tight leather pants looks straight off the cover of a romance novel. Is this really a “performance”, or is Kilmer just having fun playing dress-up? Arguable, but at least it’s entertaining. Alas, he (and we) gets saddled with the obligatory “spy falls in love with the woman he’s spying on” romance that soon takes center stage, as the naive romantic idealist Emma gets past Simon’s shield of ever-shifting identities and under his skin. Shue is a little too bland to get us to fully buy her as the woman special enough to melt the mercenary heart of the spy and thief, and their love affair is sappy enough to take away from the fun of Val Kilmer running cheekily around like a shapeshifting pseudo-Bond. Along the way, there’s a few action scenes but nothing standout (generic chases and shootouts of the types we typically see in these kinds of second-rate generic spy flicks). Aside from Kilmer, no one really makes much of an impression. Rade Sherbedgia gets to play a pretty standard-issue mustache-twirling megalomaniac. Valery Nikolaev as his son/henchman is nastier than he is, but the Tretiaks are just two more entries in Hollywood’s neverending lineup of dastardly Russians. Familiar UK face Alun Armstrong is a Scotland Yard detective bewildered by Simon’s array of identities, and two other Braveheart alumni also have bit parts, Michael Byrne and Tommy Flanagan as two Tretiak minions. Emily Mortimer, who played Kilmer’s wife in last year’s The Ghost and the Darkness, has a small role here as one of Simon’s conquests. Keen-eared viewers might recognize that the voice over the radio in the closing scene is provided by the original Saint, Roger Moore.
The Saint is an entertaining enough, if ultimately forgettable, diversion, but feels too lightweight and insubstantial to satisfy those seeking more gritty spy action. Val Kilmer seems to be having fun, but the movie should have allowed him to have more instead of turning him into a lovestruck sap. If The Saint wanted to resurrect the franchise, it needed to be bigger and bolder.
* * 1/2