Hero

UK/Australia: Accidental Hero

Columbia. Dir Stephen Frears; Producer Laura Ziskin; Screenplay David Webb Peoples; Camera Oliver Stapleton; Editor Mick Audsley; Music George Fenton Art Dir Leslie McDonald

Dustin Hoffman
Geena Davis
Andy Garcia
Joan Cusack
Kevin J. O'Connor
Maury Chaykin

Third-act heroics help but can't rescue filmmaker Stephen Frears' most concerted mainstream push. Muddled effort cleverly skewering media and societal fascination with heroes doesn't create compelling characters for its big-name leads.

The story centers on Bernie Laplante (Dustin Hoffman), a shiftless, small-time hood who stumbles on to a plane crash and ends up saving the people aboard. A TV reporter on the plane (Geena Davis) begins a search to find the unknown hero, dubbed 'the angel of Flight 104'.

Eventually, that titles falls to John Bubber (Andy Garcia), a homeless Vietnam veteran with movie-star looks under the dirt, who comes forward to claim the $1 million reward after giving Bernie a lift after the accident. Bubber is hailed as the next coming of Jesus and Gandhi, even as Bernie's fortunes continue to sour.

Written by David Webb Peoples (Unforgiven), Hero is peppered with occasional gems but has to sift through a lot of wreckage to find them. Lacking focus, pic jumps back and forth between Davis, probably pic's most marketable asset as the career-driven reporter attracted to her pseudo-saviour, and the self-centered Bernie, who's hard-pressed to explain his act of selfless heroism.

Unfortunately, action tilts too heavily toward Hoffman, who simply mucks it up, seemingly playing a bad version of Ratso Rizzo had he survived events in Midnight Cowboy.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1992. Running time: 116 MIN.

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