Too Many Secrets

Everybody has their movie which, for some reason, they have a special connection with but other people approach with indifference or no knowledge. For me that film is Phil Alden Robinson's 1992 flick Sneakers starring Robert Redford. After his 1989 hit Field of Dreams, Robinson was in the A list. So many people were surprised, and even dismissive, of this light, comic thiller about a bunch of freelance, misfit espionaige types.

The script is utter perfection, with each and every scene pushing the plot, multiple characters and action onwards. The humor is never forced, emerging naturally from a brilliant ensemble including Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, Mary McDonnell and Ben Kingsley. James Horner's score is amongst his best and most original while Robinsons direction is subtle and unflashy. He's reminicent of Robert Zemekis in many ways, ensuring the camera is best placed to best communicate the emotion, ideas, or story in each shot.

One of the reasons I love this is it's a caper movie with the team embarking on many missions impossible in their cause. Indeed it's not the action but the thrill of seeing Redford and his team solve unsolvable puzzles or figuring out unrevealed truths. It's down to this that the movie contains what is perhaps my favorite movie scene ever. The 'Too Many Secrets' scenes has the cast playing scrabble while David Strathairn fiddles with a mysterious device the team has just aquired. As the scene plays out, the peril inherant in the story is fully revealed and the macguffin is explained. it's a beautifully structured sequence that has a beginning (the puzzle is unravelled), a middle (what the little black box actually does) and an end (the consequences of the discovery. In 8 minutes it takes us on a journey of the excitement of discovery, the exhilaration of the wonders of technology, and finally the staggering danger to society if allowed to fall into the wrong hands. It's edited, scored and acted to perfection and stands as an advertisment to all why film-making is an art form to be admired.

Fortunately, the rest of the movie is nearly this great.