Movie: Fair Game

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Hot Hostage

Plot Overview

When pretty-as-a-model, civil lawyer Kate McQuean (Cindy Crawford) gets winged during a drive-by shooting in a tony, Miami neighbor­hood, Metro Dade Homicide detective Max Kirk­patrick (William Baldwin) takes her report and sends her home. Pursuing a follow-up home visit, he extracts her from the bombed wreckage of her house. It's all he can do to protect her from a determined assault of unknown origin and over­abundant means. In the crucible of danger, a spark of romance is kindled.

Ideology

In Kate's Family Law Center hangs a prominently displayed plaque reading: IT'S THE LAW. In her home on the wall is the same plaque: IT'S THE LAW. At home she argues with her cat. At the office she negotiates with the lawyer of her client's ex-husband who was hiding assets. I don't see much point in arguing with a cat that's going to do what it wants to any­way. Same with that lawyer, Walter Hollen­beck, he'll find a way to weasel out of Kate's demands (“All I wanted was the boat.”) One might say Kate brings her work home with her.

“Fair Game” opens with protracted silhouettes of Kate jogging on the beach in the wee hours of the morning. In the back­ground is the edge of the sun limned on the sky, slowly rising to the spherical orb we knew it would manifest, just from seeing its top arch on the horizon.

Meanwhile Det. Kirkpatrick is on the phone with Gold Coast S&L having been placed on hold twenty minutes trying to iron out a glitch in his credit over a check for $26 from seven years ago. It's better to pay and document these things sooner rather than try to sort them out later.

Kirkpatrick's angry ex-girlfriend Rita (Salma Hayek) storms into police HQ to drop a load of his mail on his desk, which had been accumulating at her place. Later she will return with a pickup full of his stuff to leave in the street. You know, after an acrimonious splitting up, it might be wise for a fellow to move his stuff out with him when he leaves rather than leave it for later.

Det. Kirkpatrick meets with Kate who suffered a graze from a bullet. Being in good physical shape she has it bandaged and lets it go at that. Kirkpatrick and Kate exchange cop and shyster talk and then she turns in her statement and leaves. The lieutenant sends the detective to Kate's home later to get her signature that had been forgotten. There seems to be a pattern emerging here of business left undone.

The bomb at Kate's house was in a “military configuration” set to blow up every­thing in the place so the bad guys wouldn't have to come back later to make the hit. I'm afraid it got the cat. While on the run the detective and lawyer pass by a Latina mildly spanking her four-year-old daughter. Family lawyer Kate wants to intervene. Not a good idea to put the kibosh on parental discipline if society doesn't want these tiny miscreants to grow into adult lawbreakers. (Prov. 22:15) “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” It's like a character in a J. Todd Scott novel:

John Wesley Earl has spent the better part of his life in prison, most recently for attempted murder. And let's be honest, there really isn't any “better part.” He's a violent and dangerous bastard and always has been. He probably came out of his mother that way. (152)

Continuing their run they again encounter the Latina yelling at her brat, and this time the lady lawyer briefly intervene's at the kid's crying. But again it didn't seem in society's best long term interests. (Prov. 19:18) “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.” One of the baddies will make an observation about his big score, “It's like taking candy from a baby, only with less screaming and tears.” Even depriving a kid of a treat will bring tears, but so what?

Seeing how the bad guys are excessively well informed, the detective figures, “I only trust the cops that I know.” Knowing whom to trust requires earlier relations with them, not later guess­work. Kate must drive an escape vehicle, but she has trouble with a stick. It would help to have learned it beforehand.

The detective, wounded, will get into a fight with the bad woman criminal who mocks mother­hood saying, “That hurt, poor little baby. Let mommy kiss it and make it better.” Then she wallops him again. The movie makes allowance that there are abusive parents out there.

In the end former KGB agent Ilya Pavel Kazak (Steven Berkoff) is stuck on the phone waiting for an American operator to set the exchange currency, which any other country would do at the push of a button. Seems that other countries are better at early discipline, too. It's quite a hellhole about to engulf that awful agent. (Prov. 23:13-14) “With­hold not correc­tion from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.”

Production Values

“” (1995) was directed by Andrew Sipes. Its screenplay was written by Charlie Fletcher, based on a book, Fair Game, by Paula Gosling. It stars William Baldwin, Cindy Crawford, and Steven Berkoff. Crawford's acting was quite passable for a model.

MPAA rated it R for intermittent, strong violence, language and a scene of sexuality. It was filmed at Coral Gables, Florida, USA. The action was nonstop.

Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation

The book written by a woman makes the film less masculine than my preference. It would make a good popcorn flick. It would also be right at home with your soft porn collection, especially if you could acquire the European release with its additional sex and nudity. Although Kirk­patrick is “a nice Irish name,” and his ex crosses her­self like a Catholic, and his cousin Jodi Kirk­patrick (Johann Carlo) wears ear­rings in the shape of a cross—all indications of a Christian back­ground—, it would be a reach to take the male lead as a good Christian role model. Never­the­less, the way the two leads go about potentially making babies leaves us with the pregnant question, would they rear them by traditional Christian norms, or would they spoil them by modern methods? You might want to stick the DVD in with your arty films.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.

Works Cited

Scripture was quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769. Software.

Scott, J. Todd. High White Sun. Copyright © 2018 by Jeffrey Todd Scott. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018. Print.