Matt Dillon plays an eager young FBI agent in the early Fifties who, under head office pressure, fabricates an anti-communist case against an innocent man in San Francisco's Chinatown. Ten years later, Dillon finds himself involved with the man's daughter (Joan Chen). Dillon is first-rate at the agent, giving the part the depth it needs for the threads of tragedy and redemption in the story to work. The fact that these elements don't work isn't his fault. The script isn't quite strong enough and the story being spread across 16 years only serves to make it seem disjointed, despite the best efforts of British director John Madden, who has since hit the big time with Mrs Brown and Shakespeare in Love. Not a bad film, but in there somewhere is a more intriguing movie trying to get out.


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