Friday, May 30, 2003 | 9:37 a.m.
Geoff Carter is a Seattle based free-lance film critic and entertainment writer. Reach him at [email protected].
Clive Owen is too good to be the next James Bond.
The English actor -- best known for his virtuoso turns in "Croupier," "Gosford Park" and "The Bourne Identity" -- is near the top of the short list to replace Pierce Brosnan in the insanely lucrative film franchise. I'm hoping that someone else gets the job.
Why? The answer is in a series of commercials, if you can believe it. BMW commissioned eight film directors, some well known and others less so, to create "The Hire," a loosely themed collection of car chase shorts that's now available on DVD. (Go to bmwfilms.com to order yours for just $3.75, the cost of shipping and handling.)
Owen plays "The Driver," an enigmatic courier who finds himself in new and increasingly difficult situations over the course of these eight shorts. Fortunately, he's got his pick of BMW's snazziest sports cars to drive his way through these situations.
The cars are prominently featured, but no more so than the cars in nearly any other action movie. (The placement of GM's new, boxy products in "The Matrix: Reloaded" is much more prominent, and annoying.)
What is prominently featured is Owen, giving an astonishing performance in what should have been a throwaway role. Each director draws on a different Owen: pensive in Wong Kar Wai's "The Follow," mischievous in Guy Ritchie's "Star," desperate in John Woo's "Hostage" and -- how better to describe him? -- Bond-like in Ang Lee's "Chosen." Brosnan is a good actor with great hair, but he doesn't have half as many facets to his persona.
Owen's supporting cast is beyond belief. Gary Oldman, Don Cheadle, F. Murray Abraham, Madonna, Mickey Rourke, James Brown and Stellan Skarsgard all appear in these films, and even the uncredited stars -- Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert and Forest Whitaker, among many -- aren't the kind to shill products for cash (in this country, anyway). No doubt they're all aware that they're appearing in glorified commercials, but not a one lets on.
Then again, these films are of such quality that the "commercial" label may not apply. Sure, each film is built around a car chase, but the producers of the series -- Ridley Scott and David Fincher, to name a couple -- allow each director the luxury of storytelling.
"The Follow" translates Wong Kar Wai's exquisite longing into nine leisurely minutes, nearly two-thirds of which is dialogue. The late John Frankenheimer's "Ambush" is as coolly elegant as the director's "Ronin" (which, coincidentally, inspired "The Hire").
And even Tony Scott's "Beat the Devil," while as hyperactive and silly as "Enemy of the State," is a joy to watch. (Scott should make all his films nine minutes long -- it suits his style.)
The dialogue fluctuates in quality. Sometimes The Driver spouts overt slogans ("There's always something at the end of the road. If you're not willing to see what it is, you probably shouldn't be out there in the first place"), but for the most part what needs to be said is said without the words hanging in the exhaust.
"The Hire" gives you eight noted directors firing on all cylinders, with a star who's more assured in his role than the guy playing James Bond right now, some first-class production values, a list of stars you couldn't buy with a $50 million budget and a bunch of expensive BMWs getting smashed to pieces.
Call me a pushover, but I'd say that's worth four bucks.
archive
