The Falcon and the Snowman

This is a big budget, amateur-spy thriller--a tragicomedy really--based on the story that by now everybody knows is true, about a couple of upper-class California youths who become spies for the Soviets. The picture is well made and directed, and engaging throughout its rather long duration, but ultimately depressing, just because the story itself is depressing. The catch here is that the character played by grx Timothy Hutton (Chris Boyce) is simply not understandable. It's not that Hutton doesn't play him well (he does) it just may be that Boyce was not understandable. He's like a little kid who gets mad about something, so instead of throwing tomatoes at the school, he sells secrets to the Soviets. There isn't even any ideological conviction behind it; he's just mad because of what he views as unethical actions by the U.S. At least ideological convictions would be understandable; as it is, I couldn't help but sort of want him to get caught--I don't like traitors. The movie belongs to Sean (NOT Christopher) Penn, as the accomplice Daulton Lee. He really sets the picture on fire; without him it ~ould be flat. What's great about Daulton--what makes you able to root for him--is that his motivations are clear-cut. He's just an out and out capitalist.

He's in it for the money and nothing else. He's a naive, blustering wise-ass who may just be a little oblivious to the stakes for which he's playing. There's a scene in which he tries to entice a couple of KGB men into a heroin smuggling deal with him; they just look at him--and each other--in amazement. When he gets mad at the way he's treated by the Soviets, he spouts out, "From now on I do my business with the Chinese," as though he were shopping for a used car. Penn is funny and pathetic, and he carries the picture. Well directed by John Schlesinger, from the book based on the case. Sequel “Flight of the Falcon”--based on Boyce's escape and subsequent recpature--already in the works.