They had to be kidding: Susan Isaacs' book about an American secretary turning spy during WWII, posing as a nanny in Berlin and moving into the home of a powerful German family, turned into a movie vehicle for "Working Girl"'s Melanie Griffith? Woebegone picture given curiously old-fashioned, melodramatic treatment, like a wartime rerun from the late show. Distinctly modern performers Griffith and Michael Douglas look terribly out of place; Melanie, who professes to be fluent in German (!), just gives us an extension of her golly-gee, "Working Girl" aesthetic, while Douglas brings absolutely nothing to an admittedly thankless role as Griffith's stolid boss. Musty, hokey, empty nonsense did zero for the careers of all involved. How it came to be made in 1992 is anyone's guess. *1/2 from ****
Review of Shining Through
