“The Saint” is not one of my favorite Val Kilmer movies. It’s one of my favorite movies. Val Kilmer is wildly versatile, immersing himself in an array of personas.
He’s plays a soldier of fortune–nearly amoral–who’s adept in the art of disguise. When he is sent to spy on a scientist (Elizabeth Shue), who claims to have hacked the formula for cold fusion, it turns out this woman is guided not by brains but by her heart.
Cue a tight plot, infused with exoticism via its setting: Russia, not long after the USSR is dissolved. Its a good old-fashioned edge-of-your-seat thriller. The chemistry between Kilmer and Shue is palpable. Shue nails the breathless earnestness of physicist Dr. Emma Russel. Kilmer sells every action stunt and inhabits a dazzling number of characters. Pictured here are Kilmer as a sensual South African poet and a jaded metro-sexual German negotiator.
–Sarah Torribio
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