Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck) is at the end of his five-year prison sentence after being sent up on car theft charges. He and his cellmate buddy Nick (James Frain) plan to hang out after their days of incarceration are over. In fact, during their time behind bars Rudy had heard about Nick's gorgeous female pen pal Ashley. Apparently the lovebirds had been exchanging letters and corresponding with each other faithfully. As luck would have it, Rudy would get to capitalize on getting to know Nick's pretty pen pal. Through an unfortunate confrontation, Nick is knifed to death. Finally Rudy seals his freedom outside the prison walls only to end up falling in the arms of his dead buddy's dreamgirl Ashley (Charlize Theron). Since Ashley doesn't know what her jailbird penpal looked liked, Rudy hastily assumed his identify. Evidentally as Nick, Rudy was free to play with footsies with this hot babe. Just as the pillow talk was getting interesting between Nick...er, I mean Rudy and Ashley, the fire starts to hit the pan. Ashley's riff raff trucker brother (Gary Sinise) shows up unexpectedly with a gang of gun-toting undesirables. Seems as if they want to make Rudy (posing as Nick...are you still with me?) an offer he can't refuse. Against his will, Ashley's cretin brother wants Rudy to help them rob a casino on Christmas Day. And so there goes poor Rudy who ultimately sacrifices his freedom just because he wanted a little tender loving care with a desirable woman. Thus he pays a price for his own misguided deception. The put on basically is that Affleck's Rudy is a good-natured rogue who made wrong choices yet he figures out a way to find redemption based on the choices he has erroneously made.
REINDEER GAMES scripting is by Ehren Kruger who seems to lunge at every opportunity to incorporate a chaotic tone in this meandering thriller. The movie wants to appear busy in all its suspenseful zest but merely ends up being its own distraction with the implausible bang-bang, shoot 'em up mentality. We never are convinced that Rudy's involvement with these calculating creeps are dire because the predicaments they introduce to him are laughable and over-the-top. The direction by Frankenheimer is transparent because the action sequences do not necessarily require a need to be motivating. Basically put, stuff just happens...Rudy hanging on to icy cliffs, Ashley falling through an icy lake, bland face-offs between Affleck's determined Rudy and Sinese's sadistic villain, etc. The characters are one-note concoctions. Ben Affleck is as believable an ex-con as Mayberry's Opie Taylor is a drug pusher. Charlize Theron isn't given much to do with her character besides look flustered and devilishly sexy. Basically, she's testosterone eye candy so it is easy for any hot-blooded male to gain a sweet tooth watching her! Even the little things don't add up such as Ashley's desire to correspond with Nick in the first place. You mean to tell me that this gorgeous specimen couldn't attract ANY guy on the outside hence she's relagated to writing an imprisoned guy she barely knows? C'mon now! Gary Sinese's turn as this treacherous ringleader of thugs is nothing more than a common nutcase we've seen several times before. Sinese is usually competent in the way he chooses a character that can challenge his exceptional range. One can only rationalize that he took this role as a favor to his buddy John Frankenheimer (who incidentally directed Sinese and REINDEER co-star Clarence Williams III in the terrific TNT cable movie GEORGE WALLACE).
REINDEER GAMES is flashy and highly charged film if that's all you are looking for in a passable thriller. Still, you can't help but imagine that this is the same John Frankenheimer who captured our adrenline flow with the likes of the '60's intoxicating classic THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE or the previously intriguing French action-thriller RONIN. He certainly was capable of giving REINDEER GAMES that needed injection of genuine chills. Instead, he opts to make this film a fruitless firebase where gunplay overtakes the explosive story it's trying to tell. Overall, all the rules are conventional and desperately silly in REINDEER GAMES.
Frank rates this film: ** stars (out of 4 stars)
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