Yes, Leslie Charteris would probably like this movie -- but not me. The way I see The Saint is much the way George Sanders and Louis Hayward interpreted him. A debonair scourge of spies and criminals, The Saint steps in where the official police are afraid to tread or unable to investigate. Now there is nothing debonair about Val Kilmer. Nothing particularly likable either -- except for the fact that he bests the villains and can run fast. I don't blame the heroine for being confused, for The Saint himself -- as presented here -- is a confusing character. The script even takes time out to let us know WHY he is confused. It all happened in his childhood, see, when he was a victimized Oliver Twist in an orphanage -- but not just an ordinary orphanage. As I pointed out in other reviews, many modern movies are determined to throw off the shackles of the past and come out fighting mad. In this case, it's the Catholic Church that gets a firm drubbing with a sadistic priest presented as a fiend from hell. These childhood episodes really have little to do with the main action but are presented mainly for their shock value. The film, which is a mite too long at 112 minutes away, would be better off without them. Introduce Kilmer right from the start and you would have a more compact, less talkative and far more suspenseful movie.
Review of The Saint
