Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn (reunited from 1981's "Taps) give mismatched performances in this factual account of two privileged young men in the 1970s who sold classified government information to the Soviet Union. Director John Schlesinger doesn't seem to know what to do with icy, immobile Hutton, whose Christopher Boyce never develops quirks or an edge we can respond to. Boyce, working as a civilian defense contractor, is supposed to be disillusioned with the United States government, but we don't understand his turn to duplicity, and Hutton isn't able to communicate the character's frustration. Penn, on the other hand, emotes all over the place as Daulton Lee, a druggie who becomes Boyce's contact with the KGB strictly on mercenary terms. These two should be quite a pair, but there's no acting spark between the stars--they could be performing in two different movies. Screenwriter Steven Zaillian, adapting Robert Lindsey's book, keeps Penn's character prattling on and on, breaking down at one point in dry-eyed torment, and yet the devils haunting these men are not made vivid enough or scary to us. As a result, there's a great deal of arduous acting in "The Falcon and the Snowman" that amounts to little more than annoying static--a poor substitute for suspense or substantial character portraits. *1/2 from ****
Review of The Falcon and the Snowman
