HOPSCOTCH

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language

Rated:

Miles Kendig (Walter Matthau) knows too much. One of the CIA's top operatives, he deliberately allows a high ranking official in Russian intelligence to escape from a bust. They have been working together in the field for thirty years, and he considers it a favor. His newly transferred boss, Myerson (Ned Beatty) doesn't appreciate it and demotes Kendig into a position filing papers in the back office. His replacement Joe Cutter (Sam Waterston) knows his mentor won't go down without a fight, and he's right: twelve hours after he's demoted, he disappears.

Turning up in the home of his former lover and a fellow retired agent, Isobel von Schonenberg (Glenda Jackson) overseas, Kendig decides to take his old friends at the bureau for a ride. He decides to write his memoirs and send them one chapter at a time to everyone they involve... British intelligence, the Secret Service, the Russian Mob. It becomes a game of who can find and silence him first, but Kendig is having too much fun to play it safe. He allows them to trace his phone calls. He sets up house deliberately in Myerson's summer home. He lays an intricate series of traps that has Cutter secretly laughing behind the scenes. In the meantime, the powers that be are becoming more and more frustrated, and it's not just a game of cat and mouse anymore. Most of the intelligence agencies want him dead before he publishes his book. What results is one of the most whacky and entertaining films I've seen in a long time.

With such a funny actor in the lead role, it's difficult not to appreciate the enjoyment the film takes in presenting its plot. There's a subtle humor to be found in some scenes, while others are downright fantastic. The smaller moments are really what counts, such as the smiling picture of Myerson on the desk in his summer cottage who, over the course of a half hour of film, winds up frowning. Then there's the sight of Cutter being bound and gagged with his own necktie. Some of the actors I was familiar with but others were a new delight. The film never seems to lose pace and has a fun conclusion that proves just how smart the protagonist really is. It also has a lovely musical score that relies heavily on Kendig's love of Mozart.

If it weren't for the language I would recommend it in a heartbeat, but Myerson is rather fond of the f-word and abuses it eight or nine times. Other profanity comes into play, the most popular being son of a b----. Kendig and Isobel stay together while overseas and presumably share the same bed (implied through dialogue). There's occasional flirtatious banter and mild innuendo. Myerson makes a crude comment about what his agent might be doing instead of his job. Violence involves the FBI bombarding a house with gunfire, cars sliding on oil and rolling into ditches, and an airplane exploding. I had a lot of fun watching it, but was sorry that sometimes the language detracted from the humor. However, the awesome thing about the collector's edition DVD is that they allow you to switch the original film's audio with the televised version, which contains "alternate" words (all the truly bad language has been taken out). If you're in the mood for a quirky story about a good-natured agent with a score to settle against his domineering and bullying boss, and have the luxury of viewing this film without the profanity, you might enjoy a good game of Hopscotch.