British director John Schlesinger's career has been uneven to say the least since his Oscar-winning triumph with Midnight Cowboy. Most of his films have tended to be disappointments, and this, though well-acted. is otherwise routine, clichéd and ponderous. It's a spy story that offers no motivation for its real-life characters, two former altar boy childhood friends who end up spying against America for the Russians. Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn (in one of the best performances of his career) more than go through the required motions as a spy centre worker and a junkie drug dealer respectively, who both end up passing on top secrets. But their fine acting is wasted by a poor script that fails to engage the emotions.


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