Beyond the Limit

"The Honorary Consul" is a film that should have been more interesting and exciting than it was. I think much of it is because the film isn't quite sure if it's a drama or an excuse to show a lot of skin and titillate the viewer. And, because of this, it ends up being neither. Richard Gere is badly miscast in this drama about Paraguay. He's supposed to be half English and half South American...but he somehow sounds like an American. He's a rather amoral doctor whose motivations and loyalties seem vague at best. He also is a jerk, as he's sleeping with the British Consul's wife...while also being the Consul's friend. When the Consul is kidnapped, he isn't sure whether to help him, the rebels, or just continue shtupping the Consul's wife and doing nothing more. Richard Gere is the biggest problem with the film. His performance is dull and lifeless and his accent is confusing. Bob Hoskins is also in the film...miscast as a South American policeman. Overall, the film is a decent time passer but not much more.

Believe this, I have watched this so many times, but in part. I could spout off lines in Christopher Hampton's script, at the click of a finger. I love the settings for this movie in which Gere, an English spoken doctor, falls for a newly married young woman, Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) who is earlier seen as the * working at this seedy bar that doubles as a cat house. She's married to the honorary Consul (Caine) unaware of the affair that has sparked between friend and wife. At the start, Gere, just arriving in town, helps another guy escort a drunk Caine from one bar to infamous cat house one. It's here he sets eyes on Clara. The sex scenes are quite hot as passions run high, but Gere has trouble from the other side, involving his past, where two old friends, (one a much younger Joquian Almedia) approach him, with a kidnapping plot to snatch a consul, in return for their fellow South American prisoners to be released. Only problem is, they snatch Caine instead, not a real consul, an honorary consul. Gere, maddened by the idiocy of the mates, remains loyal. Gere's father too, is one of those prisoners, as Gere is innocently led to believe. Caine's actor mate, Bob Hoskins, plays a cop, trying to help Gere track down his old man. One scene has Gere going off at him, when they arrest 250 mentally unsound people under his care and put them temporarily in prison, but Hoskins mellows him. Gere's fate at the end of the this, where the strong arm of the law closes in, was tragic, I must say. His not so badly portrayed doctor, is a sympathetic, goodhearted and likable character. But the heavyweights are Caine, who plays drunk so good and being funny too about it, where no nonsense Hoskins is solid. Elpidia is just pretty scenery really. But really there's something too brief about whole affair of the story here, despite it's good screenplay, and really it's just a passable, but involving drama + those couple of sex scenes. And near it's end too, some of the scenes are quite dark, they disjoint the action. But Gere too is a bit of a bastard in the bedroom, paying the now married Clara cash for her services as if she was still working. Also when going up to Gere's apartment, is her first tome, riding in an elevator. I liked the way Gere wore his jealousy well too, really at the sheer fact, Caine loves her. There's a lot of good scenes to find in the movie and Paul's McCartney's Brazilian intro theme was just beautiful and melodic, as it was soothing. For Gere fans, do put this different and quite enjoyable one one on your list.

I quite liked this. Boozy colonialists hanging on, fuelled by wine and local women. Graham Greene certainly knew how to romanticize the decline of British control over the world. Another easy performance by CAINE as a cuckolded alcoholic. GERE's character was a big failure. Thats probably what ruined the movie. Even the book wasnt GREENE's best. Also, BOB HOSKINS looked and sounded ridiculous as an uruguayan. ELIPIDILLA CARILLO was sexy. In some GREENE novels, you have the young man (sometimes american) stealing the woman from the older british guy. This is a nice film of place. Actually very flawed. But the background score by MCCARTNEY and the locales made it worth a watch. The IMDB rating of 5.7 is probably quite perfect. (7/10)

There's a solid film here lurking about but it never quite surfaces. It's based on a Graham Greene novel (that I haven't read) and it deals with an English/Paraguayan doctor, Eduardo Plarr, (Gere) who gets involved in a conspiracy to kidnap an American Ambassador in Argentina. However a mix-up occurs and the rebels accidentally kidnap a (somewhat worthless) British Honarary Consul, Charley Fortnum, (Caine) who's a friend of the good doctor. Then there's also the fact that Plarr is having an affair with Fortnum's wife. This is probably meant to be a morality tale about loyalty and the price you pay for truly believing in something. At times this looks like quite a fascinating film. It deals (in parts) with freedom fighters who are badly treated by inhuman officials and shows some truly harrowing scenes of torture and human humiliation. Then there are some truly humane segments involving Fortnum's relationship with his ex-prostitute wife. A man whose life is nothing to brag about, Fortnum never-the-less truly loves a scarred individual with all his heart and accepts whatever pleasure he can muster out of his existence. A heavy drinker (and an embarrassment to his fellow countrymen), it becomes clear how worthless he's truly perceived when no attempt is made to rescue his life when he's accidentally captured by Paraguyan rebels. It's here that Plarr is meant to be given a greater character feature than previously displayed as he seems to be the only one who actually appreciates Fortnum for the good (but somewhat flawed) person he is. The problem lies in the fact that Gere's performance (and his character) is beyond redemption by that point and his actions in the final third are wholly unbelievable and un-characteristic. His ultimate sacrifice in the end doesn't ring true and therefore doesn't have the intended impact as I'm guessing the highly praised novel does. But to be fair to Gere; he's miserably miscast here. Fresh from his stint (and an impeccable performance) in "Breathless", he maybe wanted to try out more serious material and therefore chose this project. His performance here isn't any good, his British accent comes and goes at a whim and he still looks like Julian Kay (his character from "American Gigolo") only posing as a doctor in a foreign country. His presence in the film is it's real downfall. A big indicator of this is how the film was advertised as a sexy Gere feature (with pointless graphic sex scenes) and stupidly retitled as "Beyond the Limit" to hide it's true dramatic origins and promote is as a thriller; which it really isn't. But still; "The Honorary Consul" does have it's quiet moments. Michael Caine gives a terrific performance in the title role and his character is very human, tragic and earnest. He's flawed (and who isn't?) but he's got a good sense of what really counts and Caine's performance is the reason why this film isn't a failure. The scenes where Fortnum discusses his wife with Plarr, his reasons for taking her as his wife and, at the end, his reasons for wanting the baby which isn't even his, are the film's strong points and I don't even think that's what director John McKenzie was going for; it just happened with a great performance and a solid core material. In the end; "The Honorary Consul" goes down as a disappointment but a somewhat fascinating one as it could have been really good.

There's a classic film here that's so close to existing you can almost reach out and touch it. The script, the setting, the atmosphere and even the poster and theme tune are all on point. The direction and photography are both solid and workmanlike. Where it all falls down is the casting: Richard Gere looks every inch a star, but the accent is strained and a distraction throughout, and he cannot convey an emotion to save his life. Michael Caine is well-cast but barely even turns up, and just coasts through the whole thing. Elpidia Carrillo, as Caine's wife Clara, is, like Gere, nice to look at but emotionally flat, and we never get to understand what she wants or feels. Worst of all is Bob Hoskins, whose accent as an Argentinian police chief has taken on Dick Van Dyke-like legendary status, most of the time sounding exactly like a London cabbie giving an impersonation of a Chicago gangster he saw in a movie once. Never let that man do an accent. All these things cripple the story and it's really not possible to ignore them at any point, so the film flounders and fails. And yet, the whole way through, you can feel what it could have been, walking beside it like a ghost.

This is an average pot-boiler from the Graham Greene novel, and although it was better than I originally remembered when watching it again recently, it certainly isn't at all memorable. That said, there are some welcome production values and the cast are worth watching. It's essentially a Richard Gere vehicle - at least in terms of the American market, and he plays an English-born Paraguayan called Dr Eduardo Plarr. Gere is an intriguing actor, or at least certainly was in the eighties. Bear in mind this performance came just a year on from his breakthrough role in An Officer And A Gentleman and you can still see the raw, almost nervous tension in his execution, and he certainly favours the minimalist approach. It's almost as if he's determined to become more than the beefcake Hollywood obviously wants him to be. Despite this assumption, however, Gere still has the obligatory love making scenes although I'm convinced when he first beds Elpidia Carrillo's character Clara, his helpful grunts are way out of sync with his theatrical pelvic thrusts. If Gere does seem to be a little uncomfortable in front of camera, then it's probably because in most scenes (the bedroom ones aside of course) he is either facing Michael Caine or Bob Hoskins. In his position, I think I would have stayed as quiet as possible, and it must have been a daunting scenario for the then 34 year old just fresh from box office success. His accent as well is all over the place. At times there is a distinct English twang to it, but then it slips into Amercian and even flirts with South American when faced with scenes with the locals. Bob Hoskins, of course, shows everyone how it should be done. Hoskins has never been afraid to take on any accent, and here he is the local chief of police, with successful results. Some critics have said that Hoskins was miscast in this film, but I strongly disagree. His demeanour throughout and the convincing accent I think contribute to an all round excellent pitch, although this is probably helped by the comfort of teaming up with director John Mackenzie again, just four years on from The Long Good Friday. The reason I think that Hoskins is so convincing here is that as he is, in physical terms, not the tallest actor on screen, he nevertheless carries weight because of his position and the corruptibility it potentially brings with it. And then there is Michael Caine. Yet again, Caine is playing a drunk, whose only passion in life seems to be the whisky bottle. As already explained earlier, Caine's legendary depiction of 'drunks' was peerless in the eighties. As an exercise in this very matter, I looked into how many 'drunk' roles he has played, and counted post-Zulu, no less than seven (I am counting Last Orders as many of the scenes were set at closing time in a pub). The best scene in this entire movie comes when Caine is at the wheel of his car whilst the US Ambassador (George Belanger) has stopped to take in the local scenic backdrops. He looks up aghast when spotting Caine sipping from a hip flask. Realising he has been rumbled, Caine swiftly raises a coke bottle to his lips within seconds, expertly switching beverages in the same take and without a blip. Ironically, this scene also has great resonance regarding the second part of the movie. I think the film is also pitched right at 102 minutes. Any longer and the plot would have become drawn out and the audience would fidget. Not a classic then, but a decent enough attempt by all concerned.

The Honorary Consul is a film that I strongly feel didn't come off. The script which I could spout out great bits of thought provoking dialogue, ala: Christopher Hampton, as having seen the movie, god knows how many times, still made for an interesting affair, something different. Set in Argentina, South America, what have you, Gere who's adequate here, plays the new doctor in town. After a bit of an incident, on his arrival, he becomes good friends with a drunk nothing good for, honorary consul, which Caine plays the part, expertly. He inhibits the character totally, his drunkard, so convincing. When a ex brothel worker, Clara (Carillo, slightly wooden in the role) now married to Caine, comes between the two, where she had lay eyes on Gere earlier, the two start an affair. When the honorary consul is mistaken for a real consul, in an abduction by rebels, friends of Gere's, in return for the release of some of their fellow comrades, the relationship intensifies in this advantageous position. There are a couple of hot scenes, notably that * intercourse one, trimmed down for t.v. where we are grateful for viewing Carillo's goodies. Gere's fate is sad in this, as the walls close in the attackers. I'm thinking The Honorary Consul, was a rush of story, too brief, for really the impact of the to kick in. The late Robert Hoskins was great as the Chief of Police, in one of his best performances, where a much tamer and pleasant Joaquin Almedia, was good as the chief kidnapper. Check out the torture job on his mate (Martinez's now deformed hand). Too which is heavily confronting, is Gere's father, a prisoner, forced to talk, in some brutal torture methods, one involving being held down in a bath tub of rotten poo. Almost for the second half, the abduction part, I found it sloppy. But seeing Carillo naked, counts for something. Beautiful opening theme song, which we owe thanks to Wings and Paul McCartney. A film worth a view for Caine fans, or even to see a younger Almedia strut his stuff.

Richard Gere plays Dr. Eduardo Plarr, an Anglo-Paraguayan doctor who unwittingly gets entangled in the kidnapping plot of an American consul by a novice group of Paraguayan rebels in exchange for ten of their imprisoned comrades. The plan goes awry as the rebels mistakenly kidnap his new friend instead - Charley Fortnum (Michael Caine), a British honorary consul who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Complicating the matter, the doctor falls head over heels in love with Charley's young wife, Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) - an ex-prostitute who has the same feelings toward him. Meanwhile, the police have tracked down the rebels hide-out and are closing in. With his life at stake, Plarr is forced to decide between betraying his love or friendship. Sounds interesting, right? Sadly, it is not. The main problem is that the characters are not likable. Gere's character is a doctor who lusts after his friend's wife. Caine's is a heavy drinker who often creates problems than solves them while Carrillo's is a fickle-minded woman who can't decide who is best for her life. The title itself "The Honorary Consul" does not fit into the main plot, which is more about Gere's character than Caine's. Even less fitting is the alternate US title "Beyond the Limit". This is one of three John Mackenzie's films that I have watched and also the most unconvincing because of its tepid performances, contrived plot and ending, and lackluster direction. Only for Gere's or Caine's die-hard fans.

Emotive political, drama, thriller set in the border between Argentina, Paraguay dealing with a twisted love story and an intrigue behind. It is set during the rule of cruel right wing military dictatorships commanded by Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay and General Videla in Argentina. It concerns a doctor called Eduardo : Richard Gere , he is a half-English and half-Paraguay man who becomes involved with the revolutionary guerrilla : A. Martinez , and a former priest played by Joaquin de Almeida. He returns to work in the little town of Corrientes . Eduardo quickly starts forming new acquaintance such as the English honorary consul : Michael Caine , he is a drunk man married to a beautiful Argentinian wife , an ex-* : Elpidia Carrillo. Then Eduardo seduces her and both of whom fall in love .Things go wrong when Eduardo is asked for help the rebels to kidnap the US Ambassador to force the Paraguayan Junta release political inmates , including Eduardo's father. Entertaning but cold and slow film with a central theme, a triangular romance and political details about South American dictatorships in which a doctor eventually must confront moral conflicts and the complex relationship with an alcoholic consul , at the same time the dirty war , tortures, kidnap, political upheaval and riots take place . Passable acting by Richard Gere as an England/Paraguay doctor who has a passionate as well as risked affaire and excellent Michael Caine as the cynical older diplomat who befriends to him while disagree over politics and about an attractive young latina girl, the newcomer Elpidia Carrillo . But the film relies heavily on the relation between the protagonist and his lover that reaches some strong problems connected with the alcoholic honorary consul .This is the second and worst rendition based on the prestigious novel by Graham Greene , first and the best was The Quiet Man 1958 by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Michael Redgrave , Audie Murphy, Giorgia Moll , Claude Dauphin , Bruce Cabot and third retelling was The Quiet Man 2002 by Phillip Noyce with Brendan Fraser , Thi Hai , Tzi Ma, Rade Serbedzija and Michael Caine himself. And this second version by John McKenzie written by Christopher Hampton who also wrote the 2002 remake , it boasts a nice cast with special mention for Bo Hoskins as a brutal Colonel who pursues and tortures rebels . It displays an atmospheric cinematography by Phil Meheux , though a perfectly remastering being absolutely necessary. And an evocative musical score by Stanley Myers , including South American sounds . The motion picture was regular but profesionally directed by John Mckenzie , being nominated for two Bafta Film Awards . John was an expert on thriller and drama such as Blue heat, Ruby , The infiltrator , The innocent , A hinge of freedom, Act of vengeance , Quicksand , Made , Voyage , When sky falls , Aldrich Ames traitor within . His greatest hits were Long god friday and Fourth protocol . Rating : 6 . Average but passable and acceptable. The picture will appeal to Richard Gere and Michael Caine fans ..

In Argentina, Dr. Eduardo Plarr (Richard Gere) is a medical doctor with a Paraguayan deceased mother and an English revolutionary father that is imprisoned in Paraguay. He unsuccessfully tries to get news about his father with his acquaintance Colonel Perez (Bob Hoskins). One night, he is summoned to attend the alcoholic British Honorary Consul Charley Fortnum (Michael Caine) in a brothel where he sees a beautiful young prostitute but she goes with another man. When he returns to the Whitehouse, he learns that the prostitute Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) left the place. One day, Charley calls him to examine his wife, and when Eduard turns the light of the room on, he sees that Charley married Clara. Soon he meets her in a store and buys an expensive sunglass to her. Clara goes with him to his apartment and they begin a love affair. When Clara becomes pregnant, Charley believes that the baby is his. Meanwhile Eduardo's childhood friend Leon (Joaquim De Almeida) visits him in his office and tells that his father is alive in Paraguay. Further, he tells that he plans to abduct the American ambassador and exchange him per political prisoners in Paraguay including his father. However he needs inside information about the visit of the ambassador. What will Eduardo do? "The Honorary Consul" is a dramatic thriller with romance that does not work well. Eduardo is an unethical doctor and amoral man. His relationship with Clara is cold and he betrays Charley with a great cynicism. The film does not work well and the conclusion is predictable. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "O Cônsul Honorário" ("The Honorary Consul")