new to DVD: The Prince

Sometimes, a movie character is so bad-ass that another character feels the need to take a moment and explain to someone just how deadly, ruthless, and terrifying this antihero actually is. Christopher Walken built up Denzel Washington's reputation in Man on Fire, Kevin Spacey did it for Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects, and Steve Buscemi tried to warn people to stay away from Antonio Banderas in Desperado. The title character of The Prince is the subject of not one, but two scenes of this type in Fabrizio & Passmore's action thriller.

Only the latter two thirds of The Prince is actually an action movie. The first third is more of a drama/ suspense film, as a nightmare scenario for loving father Paul Brennen (Jason Patric), who one day tries to call his daughter's cell phone, and is confused when a total stranger answers and has no idea who his daughter is. Who is this guy, and why does he have Beth's phone?

Paul tries not to panic, but it's not long before his initially casual curiosity turns into a dreadful certainty that his daughter has disappeared. Skeptical of how the police would handle the situation, Paul launches his own investigation. We share Paul's maddening frustration with the many people he encounters during his quest to find his daughter. It's sadly convincing how many people refuse to help Paul -- even to such an extent as simply looking at a picture and saying whether or not they recognize Beth's face. Without exception, this refusal to help a fellow human being seems motivated by neither apathy nor hidden agendas, but merely by the fact that people seem disgusted by the mere idea of helping a man in pain and in need. When Paul tries to bribe an uninterested bartender to just look at the picture and confirm whether or not Beth seems familiar, his offer is rejected -- illustrating that even self-interest is not a sufficient motivation to get people to help him. It's not "only if there's something in it for me," it's "not if you get something useful out of it too."

These scenes are highly effective. It's bad enough that Beth is missing, and worse still that Paul feels he can't go to the police, but it's damn near intolerable that so many people seem to think that Paul's suffering seems somehow right, just due to the fact that he's a person who needs help.

I can't help but wonder how this movie would have been if it had stayed with this premise. However, at one point, the storyline necessitates a transition from "dramatic mystery" to "action adventure," as we learn the connection between the disappearance storyline and the  terrifyingly infamous former mob hitman known only as "the Prince." The Prince is a knock-em-off-their-feet, take-no-prisoners bad-ass, and the latter two thirds of the film feature the Prince in nearly every scene. These sequences are competently directed, performed, and written, but they're also strictly by-the-numbers; the artistry of the mystery and suspense of the first third of the story has been abandoned, in favor of car chases, fist-fights, and shoot-outs. All well done and entertaining enough. But it just doesn't meet the emotional promise that the earlier scenes delivered so well.