THE PEACEMAKER (1997)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
ranking officer survives a colliding train wreck just before a nuclear explosion is set off that he
probably would be killed. And it happens, in the first fifteen minutes. Of course, some other
Bosnian official or nationalist is eliminated in the first minute of the film, and we never learn
who he was, his purpose or his relation to the rest of the plot. It is that kind of movie, short
on logic and long on action-oriented mood.
There is Nicole Kidman as Dr. Julia Kelly, a White House expert on nuclear missiles and nuclear missile smugglers, who figures that the Russian nuclear explosion was no accident - it was a terrorist act. There is the no-nonsense, impulsive Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney), an intelligence officer who interrupts her briefing to certify that the satellite photos show people jumping off a train before the fatal train collision. Hence, the collision was no accident either. So they are now in pursuit of nine nuclear bombs, including one that is inside a terrorist's knapsack! We learn some backstory about the terrorist, mainly that he lost his family to snipers in Yugoslavia. He is quite mad about that. Amazingly, we learn next to nothing about our pursuers. Kidman's Dr. Julia's only noticeable trait is that she swims. Colonel Devoe happens to know much more about world politics than the doctor and has so many connections that one might ask, why does she occasionally tag along with him around the world? What does he need her for?
"The Peacemaker" has great locations and a great sense of time and place, but it is really just an overlong, muddled action movie. Villains come and go with great ease and we get reminders of the Gulf War, and there are many shots of satellite video feeds and photos. The action scenes are well-paced and
thrilling, but so what? What is "The Peacemaker" really about and where is the sense of urgency when we can't tell one arbitrary villain from another?
For all its high octane action sequences and generic explosions, "The Peacemaker" is not much of a movie. It is occasionally diverting enough, especially during a tense climax in New York City, but we care less about the characters and more about the villain's tearful plea for the "way things were."
A careless muddle, at best.
