Newman plays Harry Ross, a man with a history of helping his friend Jack Ames (Gene Hackman) and his wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon). On one tour of duty Harry got shot while fetching Ames’ 17-year-old daughter back from Mexico. Since then, Harry has become the Ames’ permanent houseguest, playing cards with Jack and soaking in Catherine’s sultry voice.

The Ames, as actors, are Hollywood’s elite. The type who own a pair of million-dollar homes crammed with finery and complain that they are broke. They also expect to get away with things, and they do. But now that Jack is getting older, his luck is running out. He’s got cancer and he’s got a blackmailer who wants hush money for a 20-year-old incident. That’s when Jack calls on Harry for a favor. He wants Harry to deliver a package and make sure it gets into the right hands. When Harry grudgingly goes to the appointed meeting place, he’s met by a wheezing, gun-wielding man who’s been shot in the gut. Harry recognizes him as an old crony from the police force and heads to the man’s house to figure out what’s happened. There, Harry is nabbed by the cops, including his onetime partner and former lover Verna (Stockard Channing).

After he’s released, Harry continues to investigate and discovers something he may have known all along – that the Ames’ bond goes deep and their loyalty has an intensity that could be deadly.

While this sort of love-triangle, film-noirish style is nothing new, approaching it from a more mature standpoint is refreshing. James Garner plays Raymond Hope, a tough former cop and private problem-fixer. Only, because of his age, Hope’s not as tough as he would like to be. It’s not every movie that the badass discusses prostate problems.