The General's Daughter (1999)
Review by Bailey

Directed by Simon West
Written by Christopher Bertolini & William Goldman, based on the novel by Nelson DeMille
Starring John Travolta, Madeline Stowe, James Woods, James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton

My Advice: Matinee.

The daughter of a well-known Army base commander with high political aspirations is found raped and murdered on a southern military base.  Warrant Officer Paul Brenner (Travolta) is called in to solve the murder with the help of Warrant Officer Sara Sunhill (Stowe).  Amid military honor, gung-ho testosterone and treacherous coverups the tale unwinds as to why "The General's Daughter" was killed and by whom.

When you take a mixture of good acting, a good setting, and an interesting plot idea you usually get a very good movie.  But when you take a mixture of good acting, a good setting, an interesting plot idea, and throw in some character inconsistency and graphic detail about one good notch above what was necessary, you get a decent movie that could have been better.

Travolta's character is charming, insolent, quick-witted, down to earth, and fearless.  Delivering oneliners with a grace and timing that is seldom seen in today's fortune cookie dialogue-driven movies, Travolta shows why his career is where he wants it to be and why he can draw a crowd to a box office.   His performance is solid, talented and he serves as the perfect focal point to pull together the other players in this movie around him.  With the addition of veteran actor James Woods they easily represent the two finest performances of this picture, albeit with one exception.  Relatively unknown Leslie Stefanson, playing the title role, delivers a wonderfully poignant performance, especially in one moving scene with her father, played by James Cromwell.  The only drawback to Stefanson's performance is that perhaps we saw a little too much of her.

There are moments when this movie delivers teethgrinding drama, and enjoyable onscreen tension.  But there are also moments when things seem a little too contrived, a little too forced.  Over all this, however, is still an engaging whodunit, showcasing Travolta and bringing fine performances from most.  The uneven performances of some of the supporting characters is a letdown, but the film will keep you guessing until the end.  And for those of you who will come out of the theater saying you knew who did it 20 minutes into the film I say this: so did I.  But that was only because at one point or another I thought everyone had done it.

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