The Big Picture Magazine
One sunny afternoon in post-war 1940s Los Angeles, Father Des Spellacy (Robert De Niro), a Roman Catholic priest, sits down at his regular hide to join his brother Tom (Robert Duvall), an LAPD detective, for lunch. Their catch-up has barely commenced when up strides shady construction tycoon Jack Amsterdam (Charles Durning), all smiles and joviality […]
Upon its release, Proof of Life (2000) was marketed and received as a vague update of the untouchable and inimitable classic Casablanca (1942). Tony Gilroy’s script pairs a realistic hostage-negotiation scenario with an unconsummated romance between its central characters: Meg Ryan’s Alice Bowman, whose husband Peter (David Morse) has been taken hostage by rebels in […]
“Just a rubber ball,” says magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) after a member of his audience has inspected it prior to the first public performance of his new trick. “No, not a normal rubber ball. It’s magic.” Said trick is The Transporting Man, in which Borden begins to bounce the ball across the stage before […]
