Themes: Flight of the Innocent, Members of the Press
Main Cast: Patrick Bergin
Release Year: 1999
Run Time: 94 minutes
Plot
Veteran newspaper editor Alec Dodge (Patrick Bergin) isn't hesitant to break scandalous news about city hall corruption on his front pages, even if the alleged kingpin implicated is the owner of his newspaper. Naturally, he's fired. Just as things look their worse, Dodge meets Claire (Annie Dufresne), a beautiful French woman who picks him up at a bar and takes him somewhere to lift his spirits. Unfortunately, that somewhere is the newspaper publisher's home. In the morning Dodge is found unconscious with a gun in his hand and the publisher's bullet-riddled body nearby. And Claire, his only alibi, is nowhere to be found. Dodge has to escape jail, find Claire, and clear his name -- with the police and the real assassins hot on his trail.
~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Review
A good mixture of mystery and suspense keeps Deadline's pot boiling, despite the occasional lapse in logic. The biggest mystery of all, however, is lead Patrick Bergin's one-note performance. Always playing the manliest of men, Bergin is barely able to show any genuine emotion -- his voice rises less often than Tom Selleck's -- and he takes the ugly twists in his fate in stride, making for a frustrating viewing experience. He can't even get excited over the inexplicable instant attraction of Annie Dufresne, a lovely actress in a sultry seductress role who surely can do better than pokey Bergin. Thankfully Dufresne does an admirable job carrying the load. Incidental characters are nicely drawn -- particularly Bergin's nutcase hospital roommate and Terry Simpson as a would-be Colombo -- and the last reel neatly fits the puzzle together, but not in a manner viewers haven't seen before. Deadline is an engaging puzzle, just not a great one. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
