Cat Chaser

A film entirely lacking in a main character who behaves decisively. Instead larcenous events spin out of control with multiple unclarified players appearing, out-of-the-blue, then disappearing just as quickly. Occasionally, these roomy suits find the time to hassle Peter Weller's laid-back former marine before they permanently exit the proceedings. Adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1982 novel, Cat Chaser initially proposes an American soldier traumatised by his participation in the Dominican Civil War who has become fixated upon a young woman who he believes saved his life. The film begins with a glimpse of these deeply internalised events: the memories of Weller's George Moran are a fast cut black-and-white montage that adopts the frenzied visual language of an embedded war reporter. The camera of cinematographer Anthony B Richmond crowds at the feet of this soldier as he fires heedlessly at rooftops, our perspective that of a cowering journalist pinned down by unseen assailants. 

Fleeting and barely intelligible as anything other than vivid (but bullet point) trauma, this nightmare is one of the few moments where the manic hand of director Abel Ferrara feels truly detectable. Sweat-inducing night terrors barely established, the film then abandons itself to staid and leisurely noir, overseen by an elderly, omniscient voice-over that often works against the hacked-up highlights that are appearing on screen. Despite a striking opening gambit Cat Chaser almost instantly becomes a film preoccupied with voluminous hotel rooms and the rigid bodies that inhabit them. The smart aleck clip of Leonard's dialogue is broadcasting but it doesn't have any of the author's moment-to-moment intrigue to anchor it. Another sign of life does (eventually) make itself known though, just as the central swindle has begun to circle the drain. Charles Durning's overripe henchman Jiggs Scully discovers in himself a streak of real cruelty: a gloating murderous smugness exacerbated by whispering pistols and his proximity to suitcases filled with folded fortune.