Kevin Costners breakthrough as a sex symbol came in the steamy back seat of a limo scene with Sean Young in a preamble to this complicated web of sexual and political intrigue. Costner, in the first role to justify his rising reputation, hooks you as a naval intelligence officer assigned to investigate the murder that sweating baddie Gene Hackman has unwittingly framed him for.
The dialogue is quick and sharp, the final twist is a subversive corker and the faithfulness to the original (The Big Clock) impressive, although the noir feel of the original is somewhat lost in the wide-open spaces of Washington D.C.
