Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993 TAG: 9307310063
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
This is a fast-paced guilty pleasure, the sexy thriller that "Sliver" tried to be. With the inspired casting of Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes in the leads, the film has star power to burn, and the supporting cast doesn't fade into the wallpaper either. At heart, the film is a straight-forward murder mystery.
Who killed Sara Lynn Austin (Tatiana Patitz) in the Los Angeles boardroom of the Nakamoto Corporation? And why?
LAPD detective Web Smith (Snipes) is called in by his boss (Harvey Keitel) but before he gets to the crime scene, he's told to pick up retired Captain John Connor (Connery). Connor is experienced in dealing with Japanese corporate interests, perhaps too experienced. Word has it that he's on "their" side, though it's unclear which side that really is.
There's no shortage of suspects. The dead woman was involved in a stormy relationship with high-rolling Eddie Sakamora (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and on the night she died, a big reception was going on downstairs. The place was filled with movers and shakers, from the Nakamoto executives to a spineless U.S. senator (Ray Wise) who might help them acquire a key American computer company.
Then we learn that the murder - if it was a murder - was captured on videodisc, and pictures don't lie. Or do they?
The script by director Philip Kaufman, novelist Michael Crichton and Michael Backes does a first-rate job of creating layer upon layer of deception. Nothing and no one are what they first appear to be, not even the detectives themselves. The deeper Smith and Connor dig, the more complex the mystery becomes. In the end, you may not be sure exactly who did what, but that doesn't matter. The conclusion is emotionally satisfying, if not intellectually.
And the journey to that ending is a walk on the noir side. Kaufman has filled the screen with menacing gangsters who wear sunglasses at night, cruise around in big-finned Cadillac convertibles and party with obligingly naked good-time girls. As for the Japanese themselves, they're portrayed as anything but the stereotyped "yellow peril." In this fiction, they're hard-nosed businessmen who are as loyal and flawed as their American counterparts.
If there's a difference, it's in the single-minded focus of the Japanese on winning, or, as Connor puts it, "We come from a fragmented, rap music MTV culture. They don't."
The film isn't perfect. A key subplot, involving Tia Carerre as an expert in image manipulation, is clumsily handled. Mystery fans will find some of the twists predictable, and the senator is a one-dimensional cliche bordering on caricature.
But, so what? Connery and Snipes effortlessly lift the film over the rough spots. That combination of Connery's established screen presence - some of the incidental music deliberately recalls the early Bond films - with Snipes' emerging star is irresistible. "Rising Sun" is the kind of big-budget escapism that Hollywood does so well. Even though it's arriving late in this crowded summer, this one is going to be a huge hit.
\ Rising Sun: *** A Twentieth Century Fox release playing at the Valley View Mall 6. 130 min. Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, violence, strong language.
by CNB