Accidental Hero Details

This was another of Stephen Frears's box-office failures, a movie originally released as Hero in the US. Clearly influenced by Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole, Frears's film is seriously under-rated. It's a drama about a plane crash in which Geena Davis's TV reporter is saved by a mystery Good Samaritan — we know it's Dustin Hoffman, but when Andy Garcia claims to be the “Angel of Flight 104” he's swept up in the media hysteria. Sometimes funny, often deeply cynical and pessimistic, it's a clever and brave picture, with Hoffman recalling his Ratso Rizzo role from Midnight Cowboy, Garcia playing slimeball to perfection and Davis convincing as the journalist puzzled by the truth.

When Bernie (Hoffman), a cynical petty criminal, finds himself reluctantly saving passengers from a crashed plane,... read more on Time Out