A lighter strikes, ignites, and a flame burns through several pages with formulas, equations, and notations.

1963. A landscape outside the Russian-Finnish border where a cluster of lights relieve the night enshrouded grassland.

A lone car slowly navigates the paved two lane thoroughfare. A subtle shot of the backseat shows an immobile form covered by a heavy blanket, only one rigid hand, fingers slightly curled, exposed.

The car drives up to, and stops at, a checkpoint. The guard approaches the driver's window, asks for identification and goes to a nearby structure to verify the driver's ID. While he does his check, a hand inside the car removes the cap from a container, allowing a liquid to pour from it to flow around the still shape in the backseat. Then, sedately, the hand returns to the gear shift and puts the car into gear. Just as the guard appears to find the driver's face among the 'likely suspects' bulletins, the driver in the waiting car removes his foot from brake to accelerator and speeds away from the checkpoint. Of course, the guard rushes back outside, pulling his rifle from his shoulder to take aim and fire at the fleeing vehicle. Joined by two of his fellow guards, he chases after the renegade, sending a barrage of fire power into the back of the car.

Inside the car, the driver reaches back, lighter in hand, strikes and ignites it, lets it fall into the stream flowing from the uncapped container. The car erupts into flames, a solitary figure jumps from the vehicle as it careens toward the side of the road. Making impact with a slight incline it rolls several revolutions before exploding to burn uncontrollably. The three guards cringe from the heat of the flames that claim the car and yet undiscovered passenger, the night its backdrop. The camera pans to a figure hidden by foliage. The flames from the burning car reflecting off his glasses. Suddenly, the viewer intuits this one man has done all the burning that's burned that night. The viewer might well wonder, "Why?"

Present Day. Quebec, Canada. An 18-wheeler has been stopped mid-trailer across the tracks and a train approaches. Just before the engine of the train collides with it, an elderly man removes the truck from the tracks. Dr. George Ashton (Horst Buchholz) is a chemist whose passionately favorite pastime is building and operating model trains. He'd chosen to work and live in Chicago while his ex-wife had taken their 8-year-old son and moved to Canada following their divorce. He's come to Canada to spend the past year with that now grown-up son, presumably to work, jointly, on creating a more eco-friendly pesticide, while getting to know each other better. His son, Dr. Michael "Mike" Ashton (Luke Perry), is a graduate of Harvard and a geneticist in his own rights.

Julie (Louisa Millwood-Haigh), Dr. Mike's intern from the States for the summer, walks in on the elder Dr. Ashton speaking secretively to someone on the phone. Although she does not hear his conversation, and she's only come to ask him if he needed anything from town as his son had requested, he guiltily strikes out at her, accusing her of spying on him. Dr. Mike intervenes, rescues her and the two of them leave his dad to go to town for supplies and a package he had to personally sign to pick up. They have not gained the car when the elder Dr. Ashton receives another call. The person on the other end of the phone first addresses him by the name we know him by, but then, a smirk spreading across his broad and Aryan features (blond, blue eyes, square-cut jawlined and pale complexion), adds, "or should I say Ashbine?" He tells the 'doc' he wants to buy his formula, shocking him even more when he calls him Alezander instead of George and threatens to trade him for it--if he refuses to sell it. When Dr. Ashton asks what he'd have that the doc would want to trade him for, he tells the doctor that he'd soon know. What, we're asking, is going on, here?

Dr. Mike and Julie arrive in town. He stops in at the post office, telling his intern to go fill up at the gas station and meet him at the supermarket, afterwards. Mistaking the intern as the elder Dr. Ashton's son, the man who had made the offer the good doctor had refused only minutes before, has been watching. Julie, attired similarly to her mentor, is shot and killed when she surprises the would-be kidnapper by unmasking him. The young college co-ed's act of defiance would serve as her act of vengeance: he would be identified from the service station surveillance camera as Mannek (Hendrick Häse), well-known by CIA as a hired gun/assassin.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are called in. However, Dr. Mike learns later that the RCMP are not the principal investigators on the case. He and his dad are assigned Sgt. Penny Johnson (Olivia d'Abo), who turns out to be CIA, handled by Inspector John Cregar (Tom Conti), both out of Virginia in the United States, not Canada. But, when he finds out that Supt. Robert Ogilvie (Roger Moore) is Interpol, from Great Britain, he is convinced something much bigger than the murder of an American college student is afoot, here.

The Enemy was directed by Tom Kinninmont. The book was written by Desmond Bagley; screenplay by John Penney. Billed as an action, crime-thriller, it was released in December, 2001 in the U.S. and is rated R for violence and some language. The release date could account for the scene described below:

CIA agent, Sargent Penny Johnson sits outside her American CIA headquarters with Dr. Mike, covertly watching to see when her handler, Inspector Cregar, left his office so that she could enter.

Mike: What is WMD?
Penny: Who told you that?
Mike: Oglivie said it. What is it?
Penny: We don't have time for this.
Mike: Well then, I suggest you start talking quickly. Otherwise this isn't going to happen at all!
Penny: Weapons of mass destruction. WMD...

Tagline: A family secret. A government cover-up.

Both the movie and the DVD are entitled The Enemy; Epinions.com lists it as only Enemy in its database. I recommend seeing the movie for the timeliness of its themes. I read somewhere that there was too many incidents of exploding cars. That was pre-Fast and Furious franchise. Funny how our tolerance levels change, huh? I give The Enemy 2-1/2 out of 5 stars and round it up to 3. You can spend your time watching worse.

Cast (first billed)

Luke Perry ... Dr. Michael Ashton
Olivia d'Abo ... Sgt. Penny Johnson
Roger Moore ... Supt. Robert Ogilvie
Horst Buchholz ... Dr. George Ashton
Tom Conti ... Insp. John Cregar
Hendrick Haese ... Mannek (as Hendrick Häse)
Louisa Millwood-Haigh ... Julie
James Jordan ... Henry
Bruce MacEwen ... Policeman (as Bruce McEwen)
Guido Molinaro ... Gunman #1
Ann Overstall Comfort ... Natalya (as Ann Overstall)
Stephen Shivers ... Waiter
Lex Kreps ... Agent (as Alexis Kreps)

Runtime is 94 minutes. Filmed on location in Luxembourg by The Carousel Picture Company. DVD/VHS -- I happened to catch this one on ION Television last weekend.

**Attention PLEASE: It's a write-off extravaganza! In honor of Barbara's Annual French/English Write-off, The Enemy, filmed on location in Luxembourg was fitting with recognizable shots of France and the French countryside, not to mention that Roger Moore of post-Bond--007 in Her Majesty's service fame represents the British presence. Set in Quebec, Canada, it was also fitting for inclusion in Elvisdo's 3rd annual 2008 Canadiana Write-Off!! Just click on the links above to visit both these Fun-tastic write-offs and read more fun reviews representing two of America's closest allies (UK and Canada, for those who were hanging out under a rock the past several eons:). Thanks Barb and Elvisdo for the invite! And, everyone enjoy the great reads in store for you!!!

As always, thanks for reading, rating, and commenting.




Original review, © Edwyne Rouchelle, 2008

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older