The Year of Living Dangerously

I’ve gotta confess that I like this movie way more than I should. That’s due at least in part to the fact that one of the minor regrets of my life is that I was born in the wrong time and place to have been a journalist in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. So I guess I’m stuck living the fantasy vicariously through a young Mel Gibson, who plays a bureau correspondent in Sukarno’s Indonesia. The acting is solid, as is the script and Peter Weir’s direction. Further, the annoying romance with love interest Sigourney Weaver is more than offset by Gibson’s more interesting struggles with his role as a reporter in a hostile country. I even liked the soundtrack, which occasionally included some good stuff by Vangelis. Though I could see audience members with different tastes failing to get as much of a kick out of it as I did, I thought it was an enjoyable diversion. Worth seeing

 

Genre: Drama

Subgenre: Political

Date reviewed: 2001