Television Reviews : ‘Clinton and Nadine’ Gets Off to Good Start

Unlike its lost and drifting central characters, “Clinton and Nadine,” a made-for-cable movie debuting tonight at 8 on HBO (cable), looks like it knows where it’s going--for 40 minutes or so, anyway.

It also looks like viewers are about to have a good time going with the film, as they meet Clinton Dillard (Andy Garcia), exotic-bird smuggler, and Nadine Powers (Ellen Barkin), the girlfriend of his just-murdered brother.

Clinton’s attempts to solve that and a related murder--and to figure out where the mysterious Nadine fits in--are intriguing at first. And, under the direction of Jerry Schatzberg (“Scarecrow”) and the lush camera work of Isadore Mankofsky, “Clinton and Nadine” shapes up for a while as a potential winner, promising shocking revelations and riveting romance--or at least some steamy “Body Heat”-like lust.

Then it goes farther astray than its characters ever were.

Instead of delicious tension, enjoyable surprises and a memorable love affair, we get a cheap melodrama full of gunfire, car chases, cardboard villains, pseudo-topical plot devices (the villains are pro-Contra gun runners), some ugly killings and contemplated killings, a phony-baloney escape right out of a bad episode of “Mission Impossible,” and a slap-dash, inconclusive ending.

Despite that warning, a lot of viewers will want to stick with “Clinton and Nadine,” not just because of that misleadingly good start but to watch some consistently fine performances: Garcia (“The Untouchables,” “Stand and Deliver”) and Barkin (“The Big Easy,” “Siesta”) are terrific--if we never get under Clinton and Nadine’s skins it’s not their fault--and they get strong support from a cast that includes 1988 Oscar nominee Morgan Freeman (“Street Smart”).

Freeman is one of the poorly drawn political bad guys--but never mind them: The real culprit here is the script by Robert Foster, which aggravatingly fails to develop characters, motivations, situations or dialogue.

Foster also wrote an upcoming Don Johnson movie called “Dead Bang,” a title that would have been a better one, perhaps, for “Clinton and Nadine,” a movie whose sizzle fizzles.