Every once in awhile, I find a film on Turner Classic Movies with a lot of A-list talent that I've never heard of. Usually there's a good reason why I'd never heard of it: it's bad. And when it's a film directed by John Huston, which he co-wrote with Peter Viertel (who collaborated with Huston 2 years later on "African Queen"), and with a cast as good as this...well, it seems even worse because of heightened expectations. There are maybe fifteen good minutes in this film, most of which include the great Pedro Armendariz as a sleazy, scary Cuban Cop. The rest ranges from mediocre to dismal. Heavy handed, didactic dialog is presented in static, stagy tableaux. Characterization -- other than by Armendariz -- is non-existent. One clever plot reversal leads to an unbelievable ending that comes out of nowhere. Story points are suddenly dropped, things happen completely out of convenience or because the director decides they should happen that way, and there is absolutely no sense of tension. Garfield is totally miscast, Jones tries her best, and Roland is a cartoon character. You can read the other positive reviews posted here and think that I must be way off base...but just ask yourself why you've never heard of this movie. If it was any good, you would have.
Review of We Were Strangers
