(1983)
3.5
Michael Costello
Michael Apted's screen adaptation of Martin Cruz Smith's best-selling novel is an engrossing if sometimes confusing mystery set against the backdrop of the pre-glasnost Soviet Union. When three corpses turn up in Moscow's Gorky Park, Inspector Arkady Renko (William Hurt) is assigned to the case. Like the work of John Le Carre, Smith's novel may have been too complex to translate easily to film, and Apted might have done better to cut one or two minor characters and streamline the story rather than remain faithful to the book's knotty narrative. It's also disorienting to see so many British actors playing the parts of Russians. Still, the striking nature of the murders, the carefully observed details of Russian life (shot in Helsinki), and the Hamlet-like performance of Hurt as he runs afoul of corruption in high places, keep one involved throughout. The relatively drawn-out ending, occurring some time after the killer's identity has been revealed, might also have been curtailed. The stellar cast includes Brian Dennehy as a gruff N.Y.C. cop and Lee Marvin as a fur trader, along with Joanna Pacula, Ian Bannen, and Alexander Knox.
Gorky Park on AllMovie
Gorky Park (1983)
