Narrow Margin – ABC Film Challenge – Thriller – N – Narrow Margin – Movie Review
Director: Peter Hyams
Writer: Peter Hyams (Screenplay)
Writer: Martin Goldsmith, Jack Leonard (Story)
Cast
- Gene Hackman (The French Connection)
- Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction)
- James Sikking (The Pelican Brief)
- J.T. Walsh (Needful Things)
- M. Emmet Walsh (Knives Out)
Plot: A Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney is sent to protect a woman who accidentally witnessed a Mafia murder.
Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Narrow Margin starts when Hunnicut (Archer) has a blind date with Michael Tarlow (J.T. Walsh). When their night gets interrupted by a mafia boss Leo Watts (Yulin). Watts goes on to murder Tarlow, with Hunnicut going unnoticed. Los Angeles District Attorney sees a chance to bring the crime boss down once and for all.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Caulfield (Hackman) is set to protect their star witness. However, Watts isn’t going to make it easy for her to take the stand. Robert must escort Hunnicut through the Rockies on a train, as the assassins look to discover who the star witness is.
Verdict on Narrow Margin
Narrow Margin is a thriller following a deputy district attorney trying to escort a star witness back to stand trial. However, the job isn’t that easy, as the suspect has assigned assassins to finish the job off and keep her quiet.
This is a tense thriller that keeps everything contained using the race-against-time formula. It shows the risk and the reward of stopping a big-time criminal. We are kept in suspense as the witness if hunted down, giving us a real cat-n-mouse feeling about the movie. Gene Hackman is great in the leading role, even if the villainous figures don’t feel as menacing as they could be.
Final Thoughts – Narrow Margin is a suspenseful thriller that keeps us on edge.
