Sean Young hits Michael Caine's car. He's irate. She says she'll pay for all the damages. Caine vents. Miss Young suggests if the argument goes on, they should get a drink. They go into Caine's night club where the jazz afficianadoes meet, where Bobby Short and Charlie Watts play. They start an affair. It turns out he's a retired British spy, and she's the wife of the American ambassador. She asks him to get some letters an ex-boyfriend is trying to blackmail her with, and that opens up a world of trouble, with still-active agent Bob Hoskins, and retired station chief Ian Holm.
Tiredness leans over the movie, a sense of rote behavior in the post-John Le Carre world of agents and double-crosses, but director Russell Mulcahy's handling of the movie refers to works like MURDER MY SWEET and Caine's Harry Palmer movies from the 1960s -- and the TV movies he would appear in the following year. At 59, Caine was reaching the end of his movie-star phase. Of course, it was always apparent that he was and is an actor, and so has appeared in good supporting roles since.
Tiredness leans over the movie, a sense of rote behavior in the post-John Le Carre world of agents and double-crosses, but director Russell Mulcahy's handling of the movie refers to works like MURDER MY SWEET and Caine's Harry Palmer movies from the 1960s -- and the TV movies he would appear in the following year. At 59, Caine was reaching the end of his movie-star phase. Of course, it was always apparent that he was and is an actor, and so has appeared in good supporting roles since.