Overwiew :George Roy Hill, better known for combining light comedy with drama as in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, here adapts John Le Carré’s best-selling suspense novel THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL. It’s set in the early 1980s, when Israeli intelligence was still reeling from the Olympic massacre of 1972 and attempting to infiltrate Palestinian terrorist groups. To achieve this, Kurtz (Klaus Kinski), a Mossad operative, tries to enlist Charlie (Diane Keaton), a well-known anti-Zionist actress. The plan works when she falls in love with Joseph (Yorgo Voyagis), an undercover Israeli agent. In a complex story ranging from England to Greece to Lebanon, she is accepted by a terrorist cell as the lover of the leader’s recently deceased brother. The leader and main bomb maker, Khalil (Sami Frey), wants her to smuggle a bomb into Germany. Contrary to many other films within this subject matter, the Palestinians are not depicted as one-dimensional madmen. Their cause, and their long years of suffering in the refugee camps, is presented in a way that makes Charlie’s ambiguity about the moral position of both sides entirely believable. As Charlie, Keaton, celebrated for her comedy work with Woody Allen, gives a vivid portrayal of the malleable actress whose political passion leads her into the dangerous world of Middle East politics.
rogerebert.suntimes.com - : THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL lacks the two essential qualities it needs to work: It's not comprehensible, and it's not involving. They made a real effort to pull off the daunting task of filming John Le Carré's labyrinthine bestseller, but the movie doesn't work. It is so jammed with characters and incidents and mystifications that everything seems to get equal, cursory attention. And not a single one of the characters comes alive. Not Kurtz, the brusque, scarred, touchingly human chief of Israeli intelligence, who was my favorite character in the book. Not Charlie, the American actress who is recruited by the Israelis to play a dangerous double game with a Palestinian terrorist. And certainly not Joseph, the man who is delegated to make Charlie fall in love with him. Those three characters, Kurtz and Charlie especially, are among the most vivid creations in recent fiction. In this movie version they are pale shadows of the people I imagined as I was turning the pages. more...
www.cinematicthreads.com - : High production value and a globetrotting plot cannot salvage this total disaster, which is probably the worst film on Hill's resume. The difficulty in translating le Carre's plot is more than apparent - the picture seems lost most of the time, has difficulty explaining character motivation and is unable to properly link all the scenes and ideas together, going from one violent encounter to the other. Perhaps the most egregious offense is the casting of Diane Keaton (!) as a double-agent/terrorist - what, was Teri Garr busy? more...
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