Donald Sutherland's towering, keen presence always makes for compelling viewing in any film. A half-hearted though still fascinating thriller like "Eminent Domain" doesn't suffer because he is there - he is present in every scene and makes it count. Someone else wouldn't have made it nearly as compelling treatment of a Kafkaesque political tale as Sutherland does. Still, I was left wanting by the end of it.
Set during the pre-Solidarity Poland of 1979, Sutherland is Jozef Burski, an influential Politburo member (known as Number Six) who has the good life - a spacious apartment full of books, a wife (Anne Archer) who cherishes him, and a young, naive daughter (Jodhi May). It is a loving family and a loving marriage in a Communist country, so what could possibly go wrong? One day, Burski is told he has no security clearance and no job, not to mention a now "closed" office. Burski needs answers but is never told why he lost his position. He procures the help of his friend (Paul Freeman), a bug expert, who finds that the Burski's apartment is bugged. Still, no answers.
If "Eminent Domain" continued along those lines and prolonging the agony and the paranoia, then it would've become a classy Kafka political nightmare. As it stands, the movie is at its best within the confines of the unknowing, the ambiguous nature of Burski's membership - did Burski do something wrong? Did he bribe someone he shouldn't have? Or does the Politburo just want a new member in his place? Instead we are saddled with a tragedy in the middle of the narrative, and an explanation that emerges prematurely dealing with party loyalty. Huh? I expected a lot more than that considering that the co-screenwriter Andrzej Krakowski based this story on the true experiences of his own father, a Communist party member. I doubt that Krakowski's own father had exactly the same experiences that Burski has since much of the film seems melodramatic and there's a forced happy ending.
"Eminent Domain" has some chilling speeches about party loyalty but not enough grit to make this a showstopper of a political thriller - it just falls short. The film is watchable and often tinged with suspense and occasional verve by director John Irvin - you keep waiting to see what the denouement will be. The answers, though, are far more underwhelming than the setup.
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