Review: Arnold’s inaction limits ‘Damage’

Geoff Carter

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

Forget for a moment that the nation seems to need a movie such as "Collateral Damage" right now. (The advance screening, at Brenden Theatres at the Palms earlier this week, was prefaced by the introduction of several heroic firefighters, a brief appearance by a group of men in camouflage carrying replicas of automatic weapons, and "America the Beautiful.") The fact of the matter is that it's just another Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, and a middling one at that.

In perspective, however, it's hard to believe that this Andrew Davis thriller wasn't made in reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks. Davis -- who directed one of the best thrillers of recent years, "The Fugitive" -- presses every button, stirs every pot and stokes every fire. The villain actually snarls, "You naive Americans." Schwarzenegger drinks coffee from a cup emblazoned with our nation's flag.

It's not so much a stretch -- in David and Peter Griffiths' cliche-ridden script, Americans are plenty naive and our favorite Austrian, playing firefighter Gordon Brewer, has plenty of reason to be nervy. Colombian terrorist Claudio "The Wolf" Perrini (Cliff Curtis) sets off a bomb to kill some State Department somebody-or-other, killing Brewer's wife and son in the process. Naturally, he makes up his mind to avenge them, provoking a dirty CIA operative (Elias Koteas) in the process.

"Collateral Damage" loses the thread early on. Any chance Schwarzenegger might have had of pulling off a straight dramatic role (a vital move, at his advanced age of 54) dissipates the moment he yanks out his IV drip and leaves the hospital, hell-bent for vengeance. Davis grants him his first true emotional moment -- the look of grief on his face upon his family's death is heart-rending -- but before long it's business as usual.

Or so it should have been. In his recent films, Schwar- zenegger has fumbled the formula that made "True Lies," "Terminator 2" and his Ivan Reitman comedies so enjoyable. He doesn't seem to be enjoying himself anymore. He won't parody himself ("It's naaaht a tu-mahh!") as he did so expertly at his peak; in "Collateral Damage," the parody comes in too-brief doses from those around him, most notably John Leguizamo.

Speaking of "Collateral Damage," is the first film in some time in which Schwar- zenegger hasn't had a foil? Three are introduced in short order -- Leguizamo, a fast-talking drug lord; John Turturro as a loopy Canadian machinist; and the beautiful Italian actress Francesca Neri as an eerie echo of Brewer's murdered wife (and coincidentally, the best-dressed person in Colombia).

Not one of them sticks around long, leaving Schwarzenegger to skulk around alone. Without a second banana to put a human touch to his coldness (the grief he shows early on is the only emotion he displays in the film), you can't rally behind his cause, unless you firmly believe everyone in Colombia is a terrorist or victim. "Collateral Damage" is racially insensitive in the worst way: It demonizes an entire nation.

Normally, the action sequences of a Schwarzenegger movie offset its failings, but Davis is stingy with the action, evidently believing that it would detract from the movie's subject matter. Wrong. Audiences are going to flock to "Collateral Damage" this weekend, hoping to see an American icon set the world's clock straight. When he withholds, audiences will grow impatient.

No one really believes Arnold Schwarzenegger can singlehandedly destroy evil. No one has ever believed that, even if they think they do. But we want the illusion -- the same way we want to believe in Santa Claus. We want that illusion as big as we can get it.

By trimming his persona down for this movie, Schwarzenegger only emphasizes how absurd the entire notion is. America may be naive, but it's never been as delusional as "Collateral Damage" makes it out to be.