Hostage Negotiator

Great Film!

I liked this film a lot. What can I say about it? Good story, good acting. The way the film starts is relevant to the story but it takes you a few minutes to get into the film. Very watchable none the less. October 6, 2008

Victims of the Pit

Intentionally or not Hostage Negotiator graphically exposes the small missed chances to turn the worst of all human tragedies into redemption. I can feel every bare emotion of Frank as he struggles to regain his footing, to retain his manhood, to blank away the hints of pity as a beautiful wife first passes him professionally and then becomes his better in front of all the world that matters. Of course, Teresa rushes to his aid, supportive in every way even when he is humiliated at the gathering by his peers. Her support is enough to hold Frank steady until Teresa unknowingly does the one thing that no man could bear: she stands in front of the man she loves high above him on the balcony, award in hand, and shares it with another man. I watched Frank on the screen, alone, hurt, humbled and emotionally skinned alive, watch his wife innocently embrace this man, nevertheless a better man, a man who could take his wife when the time was right.

From there the pit that surrounds Frank begins to turn and deepen. The fight is uneven at best, Frank can't open his heart to Teresa and seek the assurances he needs without the cost of his manhood. Then, the things that linger in the back of every man's mind begin the march from subconscious to conscious. The pit spins faster, deepening. Frank's calls for help, the clandestine photos, the accusations of infidelity all go unanswered. If Teresa had only, gently approached her husband, held him tightly and whispered the truth he needed to hear, the spinning would have slowed and the darkness would have stayed just that bit that makes the difference between lovers. "Honey, I know you're in pain, I'll do anything to stop it. You're the man I made babies with and the man I'll never leave. I'll always be only for you: in your home, with your children, in your bed and in your life." When this doesn't happen, Frank's calls for help turn to screams: "Oh God, help me, I can't stand to imagine my wife wanting to be alone with this man, this particular man. Any other man, God, any other but him." Even thought untrue, the thoughts of his wife being touched, her look of passion and the longing for more bring Frank to the bottom of the pit - no light, no air, no hope and finally -- the death of the marriage. Frank free-falls to a place that crushes everything he was and everything he could ever be. Then, like a bleeding, broken, tortured escaped prisoner he manages to crawl to the edge of the pit, back to Teresa with nothing but a pathetic hope. When Frank walks uninvited into the birthday party for Teresa, hears the plates clatter and turns to see the one man on earth he could not stand to have his wife, it ends, it all ends. This is the last place for Frank or for any man. Still Teresa follows him outside: "Frank I should have invited you, you're still a part of this family, the children love you they need you". But, think, how could this work? Imagine! Frank receives a call from Teresa at his dingy room fit for an ex-con to join the family for Christmas. When he arrives and has to ring the bell for permission to enter, the better man holds his wife, plays with his children and lives in his house - all while Teresa smiles - even at Frank. What can his mind do to survive: he sees them in bed - this time a reality. Is her new man larger than me? Is her orgasm stronger with him? What am I now, what can I ever be-now?

The final scene is preordained. Frank briefly holds Teresa's life in his hands but relents when she confesses: "Don't you get it, I loved you, there's not a night I don't lay awake in my bed and think about you, about our wedding, when our daughter was born. But Frank's mind wonders back to the scene he taped in the park. He sees Teresa with the other man, holding him, smiling and kissing him as they watch his children play. It helps to know that the man is with Teresa only because of Frank's failure to master the pit. Nice to know that Teresa's thoughts that night will be of Frank and the way it was. But no matter, the pit is too deep and the darkness too final.

Frank lays dead, never having heard Teresa cry. When the bullets tear into his skin, the last thoughts must have turned to what he has lost - to the knowledge that he will lie in a grave while one day Teresa and the man will find passion in the same bed and the same home where he made babies with his wife. They will see the birthdays of his children and the man will walk his daughter down the aisle, his memory will fade - just as if he never existed.

I can't imagine a greater tragedy. I remember Teresa's last conversation with Frank: "I know you don't believe me but I know what you're feeling - I do!" If this is true, why the smile on Teresa's face when she gets her job back and rushes downstairs to fall into the man's arms. I wonder if she will still lay awake that night thinking of Frank? Thinking if his pain has ended or if it somehow never ends.

What a movie this would have been if the raw feelings of Frank and Teresa could have been explored to an understanding from both perspectives. What a movie if somehow, Frank and Teresa could have mastered the pit and a man and a woman who fell in love and made babies together could have grown old and walked into the sunset, instead of a grave for Frank and a number-two life for Teresa.

This movie stumbled on the most central nerve that completes a loving man and a loving woman. I felt the pain when it was torn apart but never understood if it could be healed. June 4, 2004

Great Thiller!!

The movie Hostage negotiator is a great thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat.It's a must see flick!! January 3, 2004

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