A FEW DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
At the beginning of September, 2001, Elliot (Nick Nolte), an American C.I.A. agent holding top secret information on the immediate future of the world, disappears. His sole aim was to meet his daughter Orlando (Sara Forestier), whom he abandoned ten years before. Irene (Juliette Binoche), a French secret agent who used to work with him, and David (Tom Riley), his adoptive son, will help him and lead the girl to her father. Chased by William Pound (John Turturro), a strangely poetic psycho, they are caught up the dangers of international espionage from Paris to Venice in an effort get to Elliot by September 11, 2001.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
A spy thriller with a difference - or two - A Few Days in September imagines a scenario in which a secret agent with advance intelligence about the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre towers is being chased by a psycho poet assassin while he is trying to reunite himself with his two grown up children via an old female colleague. We gather his intent is to reconcile himself with his family before the catastrophic event.

Nick Nolte makes only a brief appearance at the end of the film as the agent, but his presence is felt throughout. Juliet Binoche is terrific as Irene, the once active spy now with a desk job who can still do the business. Her sardonic characterisation is softened by a feminine charm that is both tough and vulnerable. John Turturro makes a tasty meal of his off-beat character, who frequently calls his shrink on the mobile - on the job, or just after it.

Both Tom Riley and Sarah Forestier as the grown up half-siblings are great, matching in fire power as actors.

If at times the screenplay dices with sending up its own thriller genre, it's to spice up the ingredients and keep us entertained. A well cast and interesting film, certainly worth a rental.

Published February 21, 2008