# Twilight (1998)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    TWILIGHT

     Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D.
     Paramount Pictures
     Director: Robert Benton
     Writer: Robert Benton & Richard Russo
     Cast:Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman,
    Stockard Channing, Giancaro Esposito, James Garner, Reese
    Witherspoon

It has been suggested by some who have seen "Twilight" that the picture is a rehash of standard private detective conventions dating back to Raymond Chandler. While Robert Benton has indeed directed the movie in the noir style, it would be a mistake to lump it together with standard-fare detective tales. "Twilight" conveys the California ambiance during the wee hours, as the title suggests, the milieu furthered by Elmer Bernstein's moody, dissonant score. But while the film is built around a murder which at least one retired member of the L.A. police force is trying to solve after a score of years, screenwriters Robert Benton and Richard Russo have a more universal intention in mind: aging and mortality, particularly the need for folks in their twilight years, strengths gradually diminishing, to recover the zest of youth and to continue to find purpose and function.

With this ambitious design in mind, Benton is fortunate to have assembled a crackerjack team of veteran actors, generally considered among the best in the field. He succeeds quite well, particularly given the chemistry between Harry Ross (Paul Newman) and Catherine Ames (Susan Sarandon), both over the hill in their fields, both grasping at their newly-found passion despite considerable roadblocks in the way of its satisfaction. Benton is not so favored in putting across other aspects of the story, particularly those dealing with murder, blackmail, vengeance, and even a commentary on social class resentments.

The narrative begins in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where Harry, working as a shamus for wealthy former Hollywood stars Jack Ames (Gene Hackman) and his wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon), locates the couple's nubile 17- year-old, jail-bait daughter Mel (Reese Witherspoon) in the arms of Jeff Willis (Liev Schreiber). While attempting to escort her forcibly home, Harry is accidentally shot in the groin by the young siren and, to keep the incident under wraps, is taken into the Ames' luxurious home where he earns his keep doing odd jobs.

Harry feels a growing lust for the witty and seductive Catherine and enjoys a friendship with Harry, whose cancer is no longer in remission and who has a year to live. Asked by Harry to deliver a package to one Gloria Lamar (Margo Martindale), Harry suffers a series of ill-fated incidents, as he is beaten and shot at by men with a variety of motives from vengeance to frustrations at not receiving the blackmail money they had been expecting. Episodes of this kind lead Harry into a complex, even convoluted assortment of experiences which place him in a position to solve a murder which had taken place 20 years earlier, while on a different level he struggles with his feelings for his employer's wife and his former girl friend, Verna (Stockard Channing).

At times "Twilight" becomes far-fetched, particularly when Harry's liaison with Catherine is interrupted by Harry's suffering a seizure virtually in the next room, and even more so in unfolding a comic episode involving the efforts of Reuben (Giancarlo Esposito) to hook up with Harry in a private-eye business.

The picture features James Garner (as Raymond Hope) in his typically avuncular role as a man who resents his role in life, which is to clean up the messes of the rich. What makes his bitterness hard to swallow is that he has apparently been paid very well by those he envies, living in a mountaintop retreat. It's a pleasure to watch Garner as the plot undergoes a series of twists and turns, and while the movie is often unconvincing and painfully slow, it offers valuable insights into the cares of older people who no longer are given the opportunity for career adventure and who therefore must rely on themselves to make their own fun.

Because of its accent on older people and Benton's slow, conventional style of filming, the film will probably have little appeal to a potential young audience, but should garner at least adequate attention from folks who are at a stage in which they realize that age does not particularly confer wisdom but is noted principally by its partiality to physical disorders (cancer, heart disease, vulnerability) and the realization that life's chief adventures are past. Rated R. Running time: 91 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998

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