
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991                   TAG: 9103090267
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MALCOLM L. JOHNSON HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REALISM OF `HIDDEN AGENDA' CONTRIBUTES TO FILM'S INTEGRITY

With "Hidden Agenda," director Ken Loach masterfully applies the realism of his English social dramas of the '60s to the espionage thriller, set against the murderous, apparently unsolvable conflict in Northern Ireland.

"Hidden Agenda" is fiction, but it is based on some shocking incidents. In the Colin Wallace case, a British Army officer who refused to become involved with political sabotage was discharged and, six years later, convicted of murdering a close friend. In 1976, Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned after accusations of treason, fraud and immorality that were allegedly engineered by England's MI5 and the CIA. In the John Stalker case, a high-ranking police official, assigned to investigate the British shoot-to-kill policy, was suspended and silenced after his investigation went too far.

These three elements are blended with fiction in "Hidden Agenda." An American civil rights lawyer, Paul Sullivan (Brad Dourif), is killed after receiving a damaging tape recording. The unimpeachable English investigator Peter Kerrigan (Brian Cox) is dispatched to Belfast to quiet the international furor. Working with the American's outraged fiancee, Ingrid (Frances McDormand), Kerrigan follows the Stalker scenario and goes too far with his investigation. He also discovers the link between Sullivan's assassination - by Belfast police acting under shoot-to-kill orders - and a plot against Harold Wilson.

Loach and screenwriter Jim Allen work in a thoroughly straightforward and ungimmicky way, so that "Hidden Agenda" has the feeling of a documentary. Clive Tickner's location photography reveals Belfast as a grim police state where armed men in battle fatigues can break in a door at any time.

Through the performances of McDormand and Cox, the characters of Ingrid and Kerrigan are made not only deeply persuasive, but also strongly engaging.

With her determined jaw and intense, sad eyes, McDormand charges Ingrid with a passion for life and a fierce determination to make things right. Cox, with his heavy Everyman face and thick body, is no Robert Redford. But his presence makes him convincing.

Loach makes it all so believable, though his style is overly deliberate at times. This movie relies on the audience's concentration; British military code names such as MI5, SAS and RUC are tossed about without explanation.

But from the start, the film builds an integrity and fascination. And its ending is quietly unendurable.

`Hidden Agenda' Rated R. Playing at the Salem Valley 8 (389-0444).

by CNB