RANDOM ENCOUNTER
US, 1997, 100 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Berkeley, Joel Wyner, Barry Flatman.
Directed by Doug Jackson.
Random Encounter is the kind of thriller that can be seen any night of the week on television. However, it is very well made and keeps the attention. It focuses on a career woman, played unexpectedly by Elizabeth Berkeley (whose inauspicious film debut was in Paul Verhoeven's critically mauled Showgirls). However, even if one has to suspend disbelief about her ability to be such an executive at 28, she handles the role attractively and engages audience sympathy. Joel Wyner seems an unlikely business executive until he is unmasked and is perfectly convincing as the criminal on the make.
The film is set in the world of big business and takeovers and shows manoeuvres in the boardrooms. However, it is also the story of a casual one-night stand which turns into a nightmare, Elizabeth Berkeley being set up so that her career would be destroyed. While the shootout is a quick fix-it ending, the film nevertheless retains the interest.
1. Entertaining business, romance, detective murder thriller? An
entertaining combination?
2. The Chicago settings, the business world, the affluent homes, the offices? The contrast between the world of Ally and the world of Kyle?
3. The title, the focus on the evening, the consequences for Ally and Kyle?
4. The picture of Ally: competent in her work, being groomed to take over, the opening sequence of the Japanese tourist being murdered and her handling of the situation? The party and her organisation of it? Her relationship with her parents, her dying father, her loving mother? The party, her secretary urging her on, going with Kyle? At the home, the encounter, Madeleine's arrival, the fight, Ally killing her? The dilemma and the decisions, Kyle's persuasiveness? Hiding the body, arranging the accident? Getting the petrol and her being seen? Her nightmares? The detective and his continued questioning? Her learning more about Kyle, the visits, the phone calls? The following him, his apartment, finding out the truth about him? His going to her birthday party at her parents'? The final confrontation in her house, the demand for money, the detective following her, giving over the bag, the shootout, and her killing him with the ornament? Poetic justice?
5. Kyle, his appearance at the party, focusing on Ally, the seductive
manner, the credibility of her falling for him (the busy businesswoman who succumbs to the first available man?)? His treatment of her, the romance, the death, his anxiety, the cover-up, the accident? At the hotel, the phone calls, his going to her home? Her suspicions of him, following him, in his apartment? The truth about him, his cards, the parole officer and the phone call? His confrontation, the truth about his relationship with Madeleine, going to Ally's parents' place, the demand for money, the meeting at the train? The final confrontation and his death?
6. The detective, tenacious, the interrogations, suspicions, visits with Ally, her anger with him? His shrewdness in following her, the final confrontation?
7. Blake, being retired at 52, the owner, the deals? His grooming Ally for the job? The meetings, catching her off-guard? Her discovery of the truth, the e-mails, his relationship with Madeleine, his speech and resentment about having to retire? His not wanting anybody dead?
8. The world of big business, the executives, the owners, takeovers, board meetings? Tactics to save careers and reputations in the business world?
9. The supporting characters, especially Ally's parents, her mother and the meal with her, solicitous, her father and his illness, the fishing flies as a gift? The birthday? Her secretary, support, the birthday cake? The finale with Ally going fishing with her father and learning that there was more in life than business?
