Socialite Claire Gregory attends a party and art show sponsored by one of her oldest friends, Winn Hockings. Accompanying her is her straitlaced boyfriend, Neil Steinhart. In another part of town, there is another party, this one for newly appointed NYPD detective Mike Keegan.
Winn is accosted by a former partner, Joey Venza, who is angry because Winn had not come to him to borrow money for his new art studio. After a short argument, he stabs Winn to death. Claire witnesses the killing, she screams and is spotted by Venza. He pursues her, but she manages to get back into the elevator just in time.
The police are called in and the new detective Keegan is there. He is a married man, but immediately falls for Claire. Along with fellow cops, he is assigned to protect Claire until she can make a positive ID of Venza (once he is arrested) and testify in court.
Keegan is determined to protect Claire and goes to extremes to do so. Venza makes numerous threats and attempts on her life, nearly succeeding at one point. Keegan and his wife Ellie separate over his involvement in the case. He and Claire acknowledge their love but Keegan cannot bring himself to simply abandon his family.
At the end, Venza, who draws out Keegan by taking his son hostage, is shot by Ellie and killed. Claire breaks up with Neil and intends to go to Europe to get over Keegan, who returns to his wife and son.
The film was initially pitched to Scott in 1982 during a dinner party by Howard Franklin.[3] It was primarily written by Franklin by late 1982 with Scott years later bringing in Danilo Bach and David Seltzer to refine it.[3][4]Ridley Scott made the film following Legend which had been a notable box office failure. In July 1986 Alan Ladd, Jr. announced the film would be made for MGM.[5] By September the project had shifted to Columbia Pictures where David Puttnam, who produced Scott's debut feature The Duellists, was head of production.[6]Tom Berenger was cast in the lead role on the strength of his performance in Platoon.
Someone to Watch Over Me was released in the United States on October 9, 1987. It was the first film greenlit by Puttnam to be released, but by the time it was released, Puttnam had resigned.[8]
Home media
The film was originally released in the United States on VHS in May 1988 and did better on home video.[9] It was first released on remastered DVD in October 1999 by Sony Pictures with widescreen and full-screen format options, including production notes and theatrical trailers.[10]Shout! Factory released it on Blu-ray under their Shout Select banner on March 12, 2019 including two new extra features, an interview with screenwriter Howard Franklin and an interview with director of photography Steven Poster.[11] Powerhouse Films (Indicator) released the film in the U.K. on limited edition Blu-ray on May 17, 2021 in a 2k restoration containing the aforementioned extras from Shout as well as a new audio commentary from filmmaker and film historian Jim Hemphill and the theatrical trailer.[12]
Reception
Box office
Someone to Watch Over Me was a box office disappointment bringing in a total of $10,278,549 in a limited run on its theatrical release.[13][14]
In the United States and Canada, it opened at 892 theatres on October 9, 1987, grossing $2.9 million over the four-day Columbus Day weekend, finishing sixth at the box office.[14]
On its second weekend, Someone to Watch Over Me made $2,243,204 in 894 theaters (a total of $5.6 million over the ten-day period), rising to fourth. It then made $1.4 million in its third weekend a 38% drop, and $844,336 on its fourth weekend both finishing twelfth. On its fifth and final week, it made $1 million, a 20% increase for a total of $10.3 million.[14]
Critical response
As of December 2020, Someone to Watch Over Me holds a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews with the consensus stating: "Its plot is sometimes hard to swallow, but some fine acting and director Ridley Scott's stylish visual flair make Someone to Watch Over Me an engaging police thriller".[15]
Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, "There is something fundamentally wrong with a script in which the hero sleeps with the wrong woman. I am not talking here in moral terms, but in story terms. The makers of this film got so carried away by their High Concept that they missed the point of the whole story." He did, however, praise Lorraine Bracco for playing her role "with great force and imagination."[16]Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Nothing that happens to these three characters is moving or even exciting. To keep the movie going until its absurd ending, the character of the murderer is changed, midstream, from an ordinary, run-of-the-mill New York mobster into a crazed psychotic. Howard Franklin's screenplay plays less like a feature film than like the pilot for a failed television series about New York policemen."[17]Variety called the film "a stylish and romantic police thriller which manages, through the sleek direction of Ridley Scott and persuasive ensemble performances, to triumph over several hard-to-swallow plot developments."[18] John Ferguson of Radio Times awarded it four stars out of five, describing it as an "intelligent thriller" which "remains one of Ridley Scott's most quietly satisfying works". He wrote that "it may lack the power of the director's Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Blade Runner, but this is still beautifully shot and remains a stylish affair", and he praised the performances as "first rate".[19]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it a "dull thriller" in which the two main characters "are both stiffs as individuals and as a couple. The only lifelike character is the detective's wife (Lorraine Bracco, who steals the movie in a charming supporting role)."[20] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times called the film "an erotic culture-clash thriller that's almost swoony with glamour and romance. The movie is exciting, richly textured. But, despite its high quality, there's something unformed about it, like a poem that doesn't quite sing, a painting with a color missing."[21] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called it "a reasonably enjoyable romantic thriller" that "shows off director Ridley Scott's extraordinary visual artistry. The sets are so sumptuous, you'll want to move right in. But the haze is so thick, you'll need to bring a defogger. Scott, who directed Alien and Blade Runner, looks at the world through veils of smog. What with these pictorial pollutants, he loses sight of plot."[22]Pauline Kael observed in The New Yorker that Scott "has put so much morbid, finicky care into this silly little story that he's worried the fun out of it."[23]
References
^DAVID PICKER: OUT OF THE COLD, INTO COLUMBIA: [Home Edition]
Friendly, David T. Los Angeles Times 4 Dec 1986: 1.
