This new film from director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil's Advocate) will no doubt be hurt by bad press, due to that whole Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe thing. In fact, it has been reported that Hackford even cut out a love scene between the two. Even if it were left in, it wouldn't have made a difference. I still wouldn't have liked the picture.

In Proof of Life, Crowe plays a kidnapping negotiator named Terry Thorne. His new assignment is to save engineer David Bowman (David Morse), after he is taken as a prisoner by a group of leftist guerrillas. Things become complicated when Thorne begins to fall for Bowman's wife (Meg Ryan.)

What we have here are three really good actors--Crowe, Ryan, and Morse. Somehow, Hackford and his screenwriters have found a way to waste their talent, pretty much through out. My favorite performance in the picture comes from David Caruso. The ex-NYPD Blue man has been out of the limelight for quite sometime, and he plays his military man with a lot of gusto.

The bottom line for me is that Proof of Life is just really damn dull. I guess the story is based on a true incident, but I never felt an emotional pull between any of the characters. The film also doesn't make any sense to me. Why the hell does Ryan's character fall in love with Crowe. I mean she's spending all this money and going through all this emotional turmoil to get her husband back, yet she feels compelled to make moves on the kidnapping negotiator?

In all honesty, I do understand the point they're trying to make in the film, but it doesn't work. It also doesn't help that there is a surprising lack of chemistry between Ryan and Crowe. Maybe they were afraid of getting caught. Crowe is being praised for his work in Gladiator earlier this year and he fared better in it than he does here. While we're on the subject, nothing compares to the work he did in The Insider and L.A. Confidential. Those were more complex and well thought out characters. Here, Crowe seems to be lost in the madness. Ryan is just an ornament in Proof of Life. She's merely a damsel in distress. She needs the help of a big, strong man to get the job done. That's sad because she showed true range in films like When a Man Loves a Woman and Courage Under Fire. Morse (who turns in terrific supporting performances on a regular basis) is the best of the three leads, but because of the way Hackford and his editors have cut the picture, you never get a true sense of his pain. Hackford spends too much time on the less interesting stuff.

Aside from a pretty exciting shoot-out sequence, and Morse's prison camp stuff, I found myself uninvolved with this picture. I just couldn't connect. I think Meg Ryan has the best line in Proof of Life when she says; "Sometimes things don't happen for a reason. They just happen." Why this film happened is beyond me. But if there's a lesson to be learned here, it's certainly to not let your wife make a movie with Russell Crowe. .