Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

ma-cortes Emotive political, drama, thriller set in the border between Argentina, Paraguay dealing with a twisted love story and an intrigue behind. It is set during the rule of cruel right wing military dictatorships commanded by Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay and General Videla in Argentina. It concerns a doctor called Eduardo : Richard Gere , he is a half-English and half-Paraguay man who becomes involved with the revolutionary guerrilla : A. Martinez , and a former priest played by Joaquin de Almeida. He returns to work in the little town of Corrientes . Eduardo quickly starts forming new acquaintance such as the English honorary consul : Michael Caine , he is a drunk man married to a beautiful Argentinian wife , an ex-whore : Elpidia Carrillo. Then Eduardo seduces her and both of whom fall in love .Things go wrong when Eduardo is asked for help the rebels to kidnap the US Ambassador to force the Paraguayan Junta release political inmates , including Eduardo's father.Entertaning but cold and slow film with a central theme, a triangular romance and political details about South American dictatorships in which a doctor eventually must confront moral conflicts and the complex relationship with an alcoholic consul , at the same time the dirty war , tortures, kidnap, political upheaval and riots take place . Passable acting by Richard Gere as an England/Paraguay doctor who has a passionate as well as risked affaire and excellent Michael Caine as the cynical older diplomat who befriends to him while disagree over politics and about an attractive young latina girl, the newcomer Elpidia Carrillo . But the film relies heavily on the relation between the protagonist and his lover that reaches some strong problems connected with the alcoholic honorary consul .This is the second and worst rendition based on the prestigious novel by Graham Greene , first and the best was The Quiet Man 1958 by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Michael Redgrave , Audie Murphy, Giorgia Moll , Claude Dauphin , Bruce Cabot and third retelling was The Quiet Man 2002 by Phillip Noyce with Brendan Fraser , Thi Hai , Tzi Ma, Rade Serbedzija and Michael Caine himself. And this second version by John McKenzie written by Christopher Hampton who also wrote the 2002 remake , it boasts a nice cast with special mention for Bo Hoskins as a brutal Colonel who pursues and tortures rebels . It displays an atmospheric cinematography by Phil Meheux , though a perfectly remastering being absolutely necessary. And an evocative musical score by Stanley Myers , including South American sounds . The motion picture was regular but profesionally directed by John Mckenzie , being nominated for two Bafta Film Awards . John was an expert on thriller and drama such as Blue heat, Ruby , The infiltrator , The innocent , A hinge of freedom, Act of vengeance , Quicksand , Made , Voyage , When sky falls , Aldrich Ames traitor within . His greatest hits were Long god friday and Fourth protocol . Rating : 6 . Average but passable and acceptable. The picture will appeal to Richard Gere and Michael Caine fans..

mark-whait This is an average pot-boiler from the Graham Greene novel, and although it was better than I originally remembered when watching it again recently, it certainly isn't at all memorable. That said, there are some welcome production values and the cast are worth watching. It's essentially a Richard Gere vehicle - at least in terms of the American market, and he plays an English-born Paraguayan called Dr Eduardo Plarr. Gere is an intriguing actor, or at least certainly was in the eighties. Bear in mind this performance came just a year on from his breakthrough role in An Officer And A Gentleman and you can still see the raw, almost nervous tension in his execution, and he certainly favours the minimalist approach. It's almost as if he's determined to become more than the beefcake Hollywood obviously wants him to be. Despite this assumption, however, Gere still has the obligatory love making scenes although I'm convinced when he first beds Elpidia Carrillo's character Clara, his helpful grunts are way out of sync with his theatrical pelvic thrusts. If Gere does seem to be a little uncomfortable in front of camera, then it's probably because in most scenes (the bedroom ones aside of course) he is either facing Michael Caine or Bob Hoskins. In his position, I think I would have stayed as quiet as possible, and it must have been a daunting scenario for the then 34 year old just fresh from box office success. His accent as well is all over the place. At times there is a distinct English twang to it, but then it slips into Amercian and even flirts with South American when faced with scenes with the locals. Bob Hoskins, of course, shows everyone how it should be done. Hoskins has never been afraid to take on any accent, and here he is the local chief of police, with successful results. Some critics have said that Hoskins was miscast in this film, but I strongly disagree. His demeanour throughout and the convincing accent I think contribute to an all round excellent pitch, although this is probably helped by the comfort of teaming up with director John Mackenzie again, just four years on from The Long Good Friday. The reason I think that Hoskins is so convincing here is that as he is, in physical terms, not the tallest actor on screen, he nevertheless carries weight because of his position and the corruptibility it potentially brings with it. And then there is Michael Caine. Yet again, Caine is playing a drunk, whose only passion in life seems to be the whisky bottle. As already explained earlier, Caine's legendary depiction of 'drunks' was peerless in the eighties. As an exercise in this very matter, I looked into how many 'drunk' roles he has played, and counted post-Zulu, no less than seven (I am counting Last Orders as many of the scenes were set at closing time in a pub). The best scene in this entire movie comes when Caine is at the wheel of his car whilst the US Ambassador (George Belanger) has stopped to take in the local scenic backdrops. He looks up aghast when spotting Caine sipping from a hip flask. Realising he has been rumbled, Caine swiftly raises a coke bottle to his lips within seconds, expertly switching beverages in the same take and without a blip. Ironically, this scene also has great resonance regarding the second part of the movie. I think the film is also pitched right at 102 minutes. Any longer and the plot would have become drawn out and the audience would fidget. Not a classic then, but a decent enough attempt by all concerned.

Bjorn (ODDBear) There's a solid film here lurking about but it never quite surfaces. It's based on a Graham Greene novel (that I haven't read) and it deals with an English/Paraguayan doctor, Eduardo Plarr, (Gere) who gets involved in a conspiracy to kidnap an American Ambassador in Argentina. However a mix-up occurs and the rebels accidentally kidnap a (somewhat worthless) British Honarary Consul, Charley Fortnum, (Caine) who's a friend of the good doctor. Then there's also the fact that Plarr is having an affair with Fortnum's wife.This is probably meant to be a morality tale about loyalty and the price you pay for truly believing in something. At times this looks like quite a fascinating film. It deals (in parts) with freedom fighters who are badly treated by inhuman officials and shows some truly harrowing scenes of torture and human humiliation.Then there are some truly humane segments involving Fortnum's relationship with his ex-prostitute wife. A man whose life is nothing to brag about, Fortnum never-the-less truly loves a scarred individual with all his heart and accepts whatever pleasure he can muster out of his existence. A heavy drinker (and an embarrassment to his fellow countrymen), it becomes clear how worthless he's truly perceived when no attempt is made to rescue his life when he's accidentally captured by Paraguyan rebels.It's here that Plarr is meant to be given a greater character feature than previously displayed as he seems to be the only one who actually appreciates Fortnum for the good (but somewhat flawed) person he is. The problem lies in the fact that Gere's performance (and his character) is beyond redemption by that point and his actions in the final third are wholly unbelievable and un-characteristic. His ultimate sacrifice in the end doesn't ring true and therefore doesn't have the intended impact as I'm guessing the highly praised novel does.But to be fair to Gere; he's miserably miscast here. Fresh from his stint (and an impeccable performance) in "Breathless", he maybe wanted to try out more serious material and therefore chose this project. His performance here isn't any good, his British accent comes and goes at a whim and he still looks like Julian Kay (his character from "American Gigolo") only posing as a doctor in a foreign country. His presence in the film is it's real downfall. A big indicator of this is how the film was advertised as a sexy Gere feature (with pointless graphic sex scenes) and stupidly retitled as "Beyond the Limit" to hide it's true dramatic origins and promote is as a thriller; which it really isn't.But still; "The Honorary Consul" does have it's quiet moments. Michael Caine gives a terrific performance in the title role and his character is very human, tragic and earnest. He's flawed (and who isn't?) but he's got a good sense of what really counts and Caine's performance is the reason why this film isn't a failure. The scenes where Fortnum discusses his wife with Plarr, his reasons for taking her as his wife and, at the end, his reasons for wanting the baby which isn't even his, are the film's strong points and I don't even think that's what director John McKenzie was going for; it just happened with a great performance and a solid core material.In the end; "The Honorary Consul" goes down as a disappointment but a somewhat fascinating one as it could have been really good.

James Christopher Wierzbicki (filmbuff-31) This is a mildly interesting picture for viewers who like a hint of subtlety to spice their viewing experience. The problem is that this film also contains quite a lot of uneven action and performances. The action is based upon a book by Graham Greene, a morality tale in which Greene shows how a seemingly mild injustice leads to catastrophic consequences for an apparently innocent man. The movie details the relationship between Dr. Plarr and the British "Honorary Consul" and the consul's wife. The movie, true to the original author's intent, makes this relationship central to the plot development. Greene wants to show how this relationship reveals a tragic flaw in his protagonist. On this level the movie succeeds, but there are too many loose ends in the plot and some lackluster performances. In the final analysis, though it starts nobly, the movie does not accomplish what it set out to do: i.e., bring a faithful adap- tation of Graham Greene to the big screen. It does not do justice to the subtle, thoughtful perspective of Greene's novel.Dr. Plarr, played by Richard Gere, certainly is the amoral character Greene intended him to be. But this role, as directed in this movie, appears to be a vehicle for Richard Gere. It is drawn in the mold of movies that Gere had worked on at that time. These include movies such as "American Gigolo" and "Breathless." To turn the character of Dr. Plarr into a showcase for Richard Gere represents a totally inappropriate intrusion of the director into the story's subject matter.To make matters worse, Gere plays his role mechanically, without passion, almost as though he were reading his lines directly from the script or sleepwalking through them. He is emotionally uninvolved in his character.The revolutionaries in the picture are similarly unengaging characters. One has a hard time seeing how anyone could support their cause. This is chiefly because the movie does not do a satisfactory job of explaining who or what the group is fighting against. As a result, it is not clear with any accuracy just what the group is fighting for. The movie resorts to cliches here. We are supposed to believe that a Latin American dictator has been committing atrocities, but what effective recourse the revolutionaries have against him is never fully explained. The action that follows becomes muddled and the the motivations of the characters confused.The one character who is neither confused nor mechanical is the honorary consul, played by Michael Caine in an outstanding per- formance. Charley Fortnum first comes across as a boozing has-been, but in the end, he is the voice of reason and humanity in the face of an insane, inhuman mess. His is also the voice of mercy in the picture."Beyond the Limit" may not be as thoughtfully developed as it should be, but it is interesting to see the film's producers try to convey the important moral message of the original novel. I give it two stars.