The End Of Violence (1997)

Shortly after his wife (Andie MacDowell) announces she intends to leave him, a wealthy film producer (Bill Pullman) is kidnapped. Meanwhile, a computer scientist (Gabriel Byrne), who's working for a secret government agency, uses his surveillance equipment to randomly watch the city of Los Angeles. Wim Wenders' (WINGS OF DESIRE) film is a gross miscalculation. One can see what he's trying to do and it's rather ambitious in its scope but the execution is too vague and pretentious. The dialogue is virtually unplayable and one cringes for the poor actors as they struggle to make sense of it. Everything seems so arbitrary rather than organic and in the end, the film comes out looking like nothing more than an ill advised (and dull) conspiracy thriller with artistic trappings. On the plus side, it's a great looking film with Pascal Rabaud's wide screen cinematography capturing the Los Angeles landscape with a fresh eye. Still, it's a pity that the film itself is a jumbled mess. With the director Samuel Fuller as Byrne's father, Daniel Benzali, Frederic Forrest, Loren Dean, Rosalind Chao, Henry Silva, Traci Lind, Udo Kier, Peter Horton and in the film's worst performance, K. Todd Freeman.