Proof Of Life

Overshadowed by the excessive media interest surrounding its production, this efficient kidnap drama from Taylor Hackford was also marred by tragedy, when a stuntman was killed during filming. Part action movie, part romance and part thriller, it's set in a fictional South American country where Meg Ryan's rocky marriage comes under further strain when her engineer husband David Morse is taken hostage by guerrillas. Enter the heroic Russell Crowe, a professional “K&R” (that's kidnap and ransom) man, who agrees to help Ryan (and begins to fall for her) even when it transpires that Morse's employers aren't adequately insured. There are a few good action set pieces, but the scenes between Crowe and Ryan are curiously muted, despite their much-publicised off-screen romance.

A movie that fails to make an audience care for the people involved, for all its attempts to update Casablanca with its repressed romance and world-weary airs.