Against All Odds

Against All Odds

In thrillers, sweet girls are overdone. We need more of those bad, double-crossing dames that can sit with their legs crossed and break your heart if they wanted to. “Against All Odds” has one such woman in it and the relationship she shares with her man is one of the most fascinating ones to ever appear on screen for thirty-five years now, because that’s how long ago this story was told for the first time.

Do you remember that movie? It was called “Out of the Past,” starred Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, and was the greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time. They smoked through everything, blowing clouds at each other.

So the light in midair where their smoke is aimed always looks as if they’re shooting at each other across a well-lit room. The only thing wrong with smoking not being fashionable anymore is we don’t get any great smoking scenes anymore. Anyway: Kirk Douglas played a hoodlum and Robert Mitchum played a guy who would take a job for a buck, so Douglas hired him to find his missing girlfriend (Jane Greer). After he finds her, she and Mitchum have this torrid love affair or he thinks they do; she likes security better than passion.

“Against All Odds” isn’t really a remake of “Out of the Past.” The only similarity between them is the cynical love triangle. And I’m glad they were inspired to tell that story again because it makes such an intriguing romantic setting; you can hardly believe people ever fell in love without betrayal constantly hanging over their heads like some kind of evil twin sister.

This time James Woods plays a gambler no kidding whose girlfriend (Rachel Ward) turns out to be Jane Greer’s daughter by this pro football team owner who hires Jeff Bridges (the same guy who couldn’t pass up that buck) when he gets fired after an injury takes him out of the game.

There is a lot of plot in this movie probably too much. The best thing to do is accept the plot, and then disregard it, and pay attention to the scenes of passion; they really work. Bridges and Ward have an interesting sexual tension with each other since their relationship isn’t simply sweetness and light but depends on suspicion, dislike and foul betrayal so much better than just falling in love. And for Ward herself, this frees her from playing those attractive/sexy/strong-heroine roles she’s been stuck with. This time as a complicated schemer she’s fascinating.

There’s also a lot of social criticism in the film about professional sports, ecology, etc. For example: Jane Greer wants to destroy several beautiful canyons by building houses on them; Jeff Bridges has been a victim of unfair labor practices all his life (this year he cashed in his chips). Sometimes you feel as if you’re watching “Chinatown” cloned with that jealous triangle; but Woods is the villain so he smokes like he should, only Bridges and Ward are too busy caressing each other (and looking good) to bother with cigarettes these days.

Watch Against All Odds For Free On Gomovies.