GOTCHA
US, 1985, 101 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Edwards, Linda Fiorentino, Alex Rocco.
Directed by Jeff Kanew.
Gotcha is a surprisingly pleasant entertaining comedy, romance, thriller. It was directed by Jeff Kanew, director of the harrowing film of family life, Natural Enemies and of the above average campus comedy, Revenge of the Nerds. One of the stars of the latter was Anthony Edwards (The Sure Thing, Heart Like A Wheel). Here he has the star role and acquits himself well as the American innocent, not realising how innocent he is, abroad in Europe and caught up in CIA espionage. Linda Fiorentino (Crazy for You) is very good as the CIA spy.
What begins like a variation on so many campus comedies of the early '80s soon moves into a variation on the James Bond theme - at least, for a Californian teenager. The location photography in Europe is an asset - and gives some plausibility to the screenplay.
Undemanding - but has its moments.
1. A pleasing comedy? Romance? Espionage? Perennially popular themes, 1980s style?
2. The popularity of the youth comedy? Blended with the CIA story? The blend of the serious and the comic?
3. The United States, the American campuses, family-life, Europe, Paris, Berlin, Spandau, East Berlin? Exotic but real? Audiences identifying with the characters?
4. The 'Gotcha' game and the way the students played it? Jonathan and his friends, Manolo and the focus on sex? The journey to Paris? The disapproval of the parents - and their anxiety? Jonathan's awkwardness, lack of French, preoccupation about sex? The chance encounter with Sasha at the restaurant? The subsequent romance and adventures? Jonathan and his parents, their money, ringing home, the humour with the maid answering the phone?
5. Jonathan in Paris, Manolo and his sexual success - and performance, carry-on? Jonathan as awkward,-flirting with Sasha, the affair, the initiation? His falling in love, being hooked by her? Her plans? Her using the infatuation? Persuading him to go to Germany, to Berlin, into East Berlin, the experience, the seedy hotel, the mystery? His being chased, the guns, going through the border? The chase along Spandau Castle? The encounter with the German punks and his disguise? The pursuit and its effect on him?
6. His return, trying to get in touch with the CIA and being given the runaround? The film and trying to hand it in? Telephone calls, the siege at the telephone box? Discovering Sasha at the CIA, disillusionment? Being chased by V1ad and the Russians? By the CIA? - and the neat humour with his winning because of his friends playing Gotcha?
7. Sasha and her story, seductive, sexual liaison, love, sharing, persuasive, East Berlin, the rendezvous, her own capture, torture, escape?
8. The film? Jonathan discovering her as Cheryl - and her trying to tell the truth, her background, the reconciliation?
The world of international spies, V1ad and the Russians, CIA connections, spy chases and atmosphere?
9. The comic gallery of supporting characters: Manolo and the sex-mad teenager, Jonathan's parents and their affluence, the maid and her mixing up the language, the French, the Germans, the CIA, the punks?
10. The comic incidents? The rights of passage for Jonathan -an impressionable youngster growing up? The theme of the American innocent abroad learning experience?
