One of the fun aspects of having worked in our nation's capitol for nearly two decades is in seeing how Hollywood portrays Washington, D.C. While attention to visual detail can vary (compare "The American President" to "Dave"), filmmakers almost always mess around with the physical parameters, particularly regarding real distances between two or more places.
Such is the case in "The Sentinel," the latest White House thriller based on the novel by George Nolfi. In it, Michael Douglas plays a Secret Service agent trying to clear his name of being a mole who wants to kill the President, all while trying to elude other agents played by the likes of Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria.
In one scene (after covering considerable city blocks in a short amount of time), Douglas' character accompanies the President and First Lady to Camp David. He then gets a call from his informant (played by Raynor Scheine -- which I can only hope is a stage name if it's pronounced the way it looks) to meet him back downtown in D.C. in 20 minutes.
Pete says he can't get there in that time. Yet, he somehow manages to travel the 50-plus miles (as the crow flies, but he goes by car) from near Thurmont, MD to some D.C. shopping mall in less time than it takes Sutherland and Longoria who are seen leaving in a speeding car -- presumably from the White House or somewhere nearby -- at the same time Douglas departs (perhaps they got lost on a detour to Wisteria Lane).
To be fair, you can nitpick most any film in such regards (especially if you're intimately familiar with the setting), but as long as the filmmakers manage to engage us or at least divert our attention, it really doesn't matter. And that's what occurs here where director Clark Johnson and screenwriter Gerald Petievich have fashioned a fairly engaging if predictable, formulaic and, at times, plot hole-ridden thriller.
In a sense, it's something of a combination of "In the Line of Fire" (the Clint Eastwood Secret Service flick) and "The Fugitive" (a wrongly accused man goes on the run from a determined lawman to prove his innocence and find the guilty party). And there's even a little bit of James Bond spy moments and any old "affair equals disaster" plotline (although this one doesn't travel into "Fatal Attraction" territory), all thrown in for good measure.
While not as good as its predecessors in terms of their related storylines, the film still manages to be fairly entertaining. And that's particularly true if you're a fan of Sutherland as his role here isn't too much of a stretch from his hugely popular Jack Bauer alter ego on TV's "24." Like Tommy Lee Jones to Harrison Ford in "The Fugitive," he's more fun and interesting to watch than Douglas in his wily mouse role. Although not as charismatic as Jones' character, Sutherland's is just as intense and smart, and that goes a long way in fueling the film's forward momentum.
Of course, and both by design and default, we're supposed to root for Pete to avoid being captured while solving the mystery and nabbing the bad guys. Upon his escape (and despite Douglas being 61-years-old compared to Eastwood's 63 year at the time of "Line of Fire"), Breckinridge tells the other agents that Pete's their worst nightmare in that he knows everything they do and will use that against them, thus setting up the Bond-esque (or any old spy flick) type material.
Although there are some fun moments related to that, I wish the filmmakers had been cleverer, more imaginative and not as stingy in terms of the style and amount of such material. And by giving the viewer superior position -- where we, unlike the Secret Service, know other bad guys are responsible -- part of the fun of figuring out if Pete's really the culprit is completely eliminated.
After all, his affair with the First Lady -- played by Kim Basinger who's okay in the part but isn't given much to do -- as well as allegations that he had the same with Breckinridge's wife (which adds another dimension to their conflict) prove he's no boy scout. Yet, our superior position as well as the barely personified portrayal of the villains does steal some of the film's thunder.
In the supporting roles, Longoria is decent in her anti Desperate Gabrielle role, while Johnson briefly appears as the first agent to be killed (in what's possibly an inside joke of it always being the minor black character who gets offed in these sorts of films).
Despite the aforementioned problems and/or issues, the cast and crew manage to keep us interested from start to finish thanks to solid performances, a slick and polished veneer, and enough forward momentum to make the plot holes and apparent time travel from one location to another less distracting than they might have been in a slower-moving and less engaging thriller. "The Sentinel" rates as a 5 out of 10.
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