Thin Air (2000)
Frank Belson didn't ask too many questions about the past of his new wife Lisa St. Claire, even after she suddenly and mysteriously disappeared one night. He brings in Spenser to help locate her, who begins to piece together her complete life story while submerged in the Latino shadow world of the town of Proctor.
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Pretty Good
I'll tell you why so serious
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
I love Joe Mantegna and I love crime/thriller movies. But this one sucked! It's a slow moving predictable film. The idea was dumb. The story was dumb. Much of the dialogue was dumb. The title was even dumb. Into "thin air?" What "thin air?" We knew where Lisa, the kidnapped woman, was and who she was with the whole time. No mystery there. Should have been an exciting thriller, but it wasn't.
It would be ridiculous to comment on the realism of this movie. In real life private detectives seldom get involved in exciting cases. The genre exists because we all love the idea of the knight errant who operates with a strict code of honor. Enjoying this movie requires suspension of disbelief. That done, it is quite good. Mantegna is the personification of Spenser. He speaks his wise cracks as if he were improvising them. So what if the plot is over the top? The movie is as much fun as the books and that should be all that matters.
This is the second adaptation by Parker with this cast of one of his Spenser books. The story is true to the book. The relationships between Spenser and Frank Belson are true to the context of the Spenser book series. The Boston police want to have nothing to do with private detectives, especially an ex-cop fired for insubordination who skates the edge of the law too frequently. Sometimes, though, being within the law has too many restrictions. When Belson's wife is kidnapped, Spenser investigates and finds things are not what they seem.Mantegna is not nearly as pretty as Robert Urich of the old tv show, but much truer to the character of the pages of the books in thoughts, looks, and deeds. The supporting cast with Marcia Gay Harden as Susan Silverman is also good. Fans of the Spenser books will be pleased. I cannot wait for the next adaptation (I have heard there will be six).
I found this made for TV movie with too many ridiculous scenes. A police detective's wife is kidnapped, and he later asks ex-cop, now private investigator [Spenser] to investigate, and find his wife.In one scene, the detective responds to a 911 call where Spenser is force to shoot a man that had threatened his girlfriend with a knife. Upon arriving, the detective seems to have a condescending and unfriendly attitude towards Spenser.The detective who is later laid in a hospital bed after being shot by the kidnapper, tells Spenser to find the shooter and waste him. This scene does not make sense as do others that follow, which I will not get into so as not to spoil it for those who want to see this drama of a movie. It's as if the script was rushed without proper technical advice, or scenes just made up as they went along. For those who do see this movie, I'm sure many will agree with my critique.