SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME

US, 1987, 106 minutes, Colour.
Tom Berenger, Mimi Rogers, Lorrane Bracco, Andreas Kautselas, Jerry Orbach, John Rubenstein.
Directed by Ridley Scott.

Someone to Watch Over Me is quite a good thriller. It was overshadowed on release by Fatal Attraction, somewhat similar in style and plot. The title comes from the Ira and George Gershwin song which is sung by various artists throughout the film including Sting and Roberta Flack.

Mimi Rogers is a woman who witnesses a murder and has to have police protection for witnessing to the crime. Tom Berenger is very good as the lower class policeman caught up in the world of the wealthy, infatuated with the heroine. Lorraine Bracco is also very good as his wife. While the film focuses on the crime and the menace to the heroine, it also explores the hero and his tangled relationships.

The film is stylish, coming from Ridley Scott who specialised in commercials as well as directing The Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner, Legend.

1. An interesting and enjoyable thriller with style?

2. The familiar B-budget plot given A-budget treatment? Perennial and popular material?

3. The work of Ridley Scott, the photography of New York, making it a character in the film? The glossy world of affluence and class? The contrast with Brooklyn and Queens and the ordinary city? The work of the police? The stars and their strengths?

4. The song and the title, its use, theme?

5. The party and the introduction to the characters? The police, detectives? Boisterous? Relationships? Tom and his relationship with Claire? The ordinary life that they led? The changing situation with his going onto his first case? Woken up in the night? A new beginning?

6. The contrast with the uptown party and its style, people, Claire and Neil and their relationship? Wealthy businessmen? The victim and his relationship with Claire? Her going down to the basement? The confrontation between the businessman and his killer? His death? Claire witnessing, escaping?

7. Claire and her having to be guarded as a witness? Neil and his anger add hard line? The situation, her fear, the vigils, the police? Tom and his care for her? Her taking him in charge, the shopping, the team? Going to the party, her going to the toilet, the confrontation with the killer? The need for tighter protection? The screenplay's suggestion of the interaction between Claire and Tom, their being thrown together, the discovery of the truth? The relationship? The night and the killer's entry? Neil's arrival and anger? The police and having to cope with Tom and the deaths? The separation, Claire willing to act as a decoy? The breaking of the relationship with Tom? The ending?

8. The portrait of Tom, at work, his class, clothes, family, the games with children? Life in Queens? Looking over the new house? Relationship with his wife, love, tensions? His work, surveillance, his clothes, going into society, the contrast with home? Thrown together with Claire? His wife and her threats? The relationship, the night together, the killers and Tom confronting them? The wife and her breaking, leaving home? Contact with his son, phone calls? Discussions with Claire, the break-up? The finale, Claire as decoy, the courage of his wife? The credibility of the reconciliation?

9. The wife and her background in the police, her father, tough, language, the house? Her suspicions, reaction to Tom's comments about swearing? The dinner and the breaking up? The truth? Leaving? Demanding that he come back 'to me'? The build-up to the finale?

10. The police, friendships, the police wives, their work, detection, surveillance? The vigil by Tom's friend? His death?

11. The killer: in himself, power and wealth, the law, giving himself up, released on a technicality? The jogger and his being killed and the assassin taking his place? Death? The build-up to the final confrontation?

12. The thriller themes and their familiarity? The threatened woman, the detective and surveillance, the deaths of the police, the brutal killer The contrast with the themes of relationships, class, love, fidelity and infidelity, break and reconciliation?