Robert Miller (Richard Gere) is a man with the perfect life; he has a beautiful wife (Susan Sarandon), a loving family and a lucrative company that he is on the verge of selling for a large amount of money. His aim is to retire happily. However, as is usually the case in these situations, all is not as it seems; Miller has a young French artist as a mistress, and his company is barely (and illegally) being kept afloat. But one fatal car accident later and Miller finds himself hiding the fact he was ever in the vehicle, fearing it will ruin his upcoming business deal. Enter Detective Bryer (Tim Roth), the only man convinced of Miller's guilt, determined that justice will triumph, and by any means necessary.
Even though Miller is very much a guilty man, there is a guilty pleasure in initially watching his world unravel, and then an even guiltier one as you actually long for him to get away with it, and that is solely down to Richard Gere's fantastic performance. The plot doesn't take too long slotting all of the pieces into place, and once they do you can certainly feel the panic-y vibe as Miller tries to cover all of his bases, but unfortunately, this pace can't be maintained. Before long, it's just Gere running from one luxurious building to the next, trying to keep all of his plates spinning. Interest quickly wanes as we all just wait impatiently for the conclusion to arrive.
Along with Gere, we get some good-but-not-great performances from Sarandon as his put-upon wife, Roth as a mix of his Reservoir Dogs and Lie To Me characters, and Brit Marling as Miller's too smart for own good daughter. But this is The Richard Gere Show, a reminder of just how great an actor he can be, even when the movie he's in doesn't fully deserve the performance he's giving.
