Unlike recent failures to script scheming psychopaths and their nemeses
(Kiss the Girls, Switchback), Barbet Schroeder's Desperate
Measures offers a viscerally engaging bad guy and gives him intellectually
engaging things to do. The screenwriter, of course, intended us to empathize
with FBI agent Frank Connor (Andy Garcia), whose kid has leukemia. Naturally an
urgent marrow transplant becomes necessary, and naturally the only genetic
match is maximum-security offender Peter McCabe (Michael Keaton), who has
enough jail time to last him well into the afterlife. McCabe agrees to the
transplant, gets transferred to the hospital, and plots a brilliant escape from
the ER. Connor's dilemma: if he -- or anyone else -- kills McCabe, his son may
die.
We may feel for Connor, but this is McCabe's story. Keaton shows a maleficent
strength when he's mobile (igniting ER personnel, taking the random hostage,
etc.); when he's subjected to Schroeder's soul-probing close-ups, however, he
can't quite maintain his hollow gaze or relay that freak spark of humanity.
Still, analyzing Keaton's struggle with McCabe's moral void is more involving
than the spectacle of Garcia choking back tears and then trying to justify
breaking every rule in the FBI handbook. It's fun to watch Keaton swim in
uncharted thespian waters, if only to see whether he'll drown.
--Robert Furlong
Full Length Reviews
Desperate Measures 
Desperate Measures 
Desperate Measures 
Capsule Reviews
Desperate Measures 
Other Films by Barbet Schroeder
Kiss of Death 
Film Vault Suggested Links
Ransom 
L.A. Confidential 
Touch of Evil 
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