Someone to Watch Over Me

Someone to Watch Over Me; crime, USA, 1987; D: Ridley Scott, S: Tom Berenger, Mimi Rogers, Lorraine Bracco

New York. Mike Keegan is a typical detective from Queens who is married and has a son. One day, he gets the assignment to watch out over the rich Claire Gregory who saw her friend was killed by criminal Venza. In shifts, the police is protecting her mansion while Mike's turn is always at night, so he goes out with her to extravagant parties. The police catches Venza, but releases him to due to unlawful arrest. Mike falls in love with Claire, but as a consequence his wife leaves him. When Venzo takes his family as hostages, he kills him.

After brilliant sci-fi drama "Blade Runner", director Ridley Scott's talent started to erode and return back again, and the gentle crime romance "Someone to Watch Over Me" is the positive exception to that rule since its much closer to the latter mentioned classic than a soap opera it could have easily turned into, but didn't. The melancholic story about a detective who has to watch over a rich lady in her mansion at night until he falls in love captivates with enchanting aesthetic cinematography, 80s flair, subtle approach and an occasional amusing situation (the police chief goes crazy from rage when he hears the lady wants to go out at night for "shopping"; the detective explains her that she has to walk "wacky" in order to confuse and scare off potential thieves). The biggest flaws are Tom Berenger's accent which isn't everyone's 'cup of tea', a mild visual style and banal finale, yet as a whole its a very pleasant surprise that managed to get the most out of Scott's vision.

Grade:+++