Someone to Watch Over Me

A moody little romantic thriller in which a blue-collar detective is assigned to watch over a socialite who was witness to a murder. She is gorgeous and also a nice person, so it's no surprise that he starts to fall in love with her (I did) and his marriage to his stand-up soulmate wife suffers as a result. This picture is a lot better than it had a right to be, based largely on good perfommances and tight, atmospheric direction by Ridley (“Blade Runner” “Alien”) Scott. The portrayal of the middle-class cop's life is quite effective, and you can feel his confusion on as he finds himself increasingly drawn to luxuries which he probably would have scoffed at only a few months before, not to mention to the woman he probably considered just a spoiled society dame, but who turns out to be a class act. The picture is handled with admirable restraint up until the big climactic showdown, during which the bad guy (who seems more psycho than he should be) soils his hands in a way that no clear-thinking tycoon kingpin ever would. Things go a bit haywire here; they betray the characters they had painstakingly set up, but what can you do? The ending is appropriately bittersweet, so except for that minute lapse, the picture achieves its modest goals admirably.