Film Scouts Diaries

2002 Taormina BNL FilmFest Diaries
Cosa Mostra: Day 6

by Philipp Hoschka

Taormina, July 11, 2002 - A pretty slow day - this can happen, since the Festival has only about 10 screenings each day, some of which are reruns of movies that had already been shown earlier.

The evening movie is "Quicksand", starring ex-Batman Michael Keaton, Michael Caine and Judith Godreche. This thriller is set in my former hometown Nice on the French Riviera and covers all the issues the locals there have to deal with on a daily basis - money laundering, Russian mafia, prostitution, corrupt policemen, and how to escape from all that through the city's sewer system.

Keaton plays the main character Martin Raikes, a New York banker who is sent to the French Riviera to investigate some questionable bank account transfers. He quickly finds himself in trouble, being wrongfully accused of having murdered a senior Niçois police officer. He then has to fight to prove his innocence, and receives help from the daughter of a French minister (Godreche) who is afraid of being killed by the Russian mafia, and from an actor beyond his prime who is afraid of not getting paid (Caine). Caine, while not having a main role in this movie, leaves the most lasting impression of the three. The movie is not a masterpiece, but entertaining. It does not seem to have found a distributor in the US yet. I also somehow doubt that it will ever open in Nice.

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