Amazon.com video review:
Martin Cruz Smith's bestselling mystery novel seemed
ideally cast for this movie version, but director Michael Apted and
the usually reliable writer Dennis Potter couldn't solve the problem
of taking the story from the page to the screen. William Hurt plays Renko, a
Cold War-era Moscow police detective who must cope with both crooks
and Communist party protocol as he tries to solve a murder case in the
middle of one of Moscow's public parks that leaves three faceless
corpses. The strands of the mystery involve corruption, American
money, and the fur trade and, ultimately, take Renko to New York. But
the tension is never all there, despite a deliciously menacing
performance by Lee Marvin as the bad guy and Brian Dennehy as an
American cop who becomes Renko's ally. --Marshall Fine
