Hanover Street Movie Review

An obscure Harrison Ford starrer, Hanover Street is a capable rendition of love and war a la The English Patient, but also recalling Catch-22 and the Indiana Jones films.

Directed by Peter Hyams, who hasn't done much of note in his whole career (including End of Days and a bunch of Jean-Claude Van Damme movies), Hanover Street is a pleasant meditation on finding solace in rough times. In London, during WWII, an American pilot (Ford) and a British nurse (Lesley-Anne Down) cross paths moments before an air raid and find each other's embrace not so intolerable. (Never mind that she's married.)

Before long, Ford's Han Solo-esque pilot is tapped to fly an ultra-secret mission into the heart of Nazi territory. His charge: deliver a top-ranking British intel agent (Christopher Plummer) in for a little spy jobby. The catch: Plummer plays Down's husband, and he doesn't know about the affair. And Ford doesn't realize Plummer is his honey's hubby.

You got all that? Hanover Street is actually much more straightforward than it sounds, far more so than The English Patient's obscure meandering. This makes the film more accessible, but it does rob it of the kind of timeless grace that made Patient an Oscar-winner.

As for the actors, Lesley-Anne Down, now reduced to making films like Beastmaster III, comes off as a tad chilly for the part, and Ford comes off as a little too young and aloof. It's Plummer's earnest spy who is really the best among the cast, symapthetic yet clearly obsessed with his work so much that you can understand why his wife might stray. Richard Masur, as a Yossarian-like bombardier, also does wonders with a teeny, tiny role.

The DVD has a few extras, the most notable being a commentary track by Hyams, who hasn't seen the film for 22 years (since its release). It's a somber and somewhat engaging retelling of the circumstances around Hanover Street's creation... but yes, it's still Peter Hyams.

Love and rubble.