The Fixer (1998) starring Jon Voight, Brenda Bakke, J.J. Johnston, Miguel Sandoval, Jack Wallace, Barbara Gordon, Sara Botsford, John White directed by Charles Robert Carner Movie Review

The Fixer (1998)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jon Voight in The Fixer (1998)

Fixing the Voight

"The Fixer" is an entertaining little drama, the sort of thing which you discover channel hopping late at night and enjoy watching the once but feel no need to revisit again. It doesn't have a great deal of depth, doesn't have great characters or performances, just an entertaining premise of a fixer going straight and facing those who want to prevent him and keeping him in the loop.

Jack Killoran (Jon Voight - The Rainmaker) like his father before him is a very powerful man who thanks to his numerous connections is known as a man who can fix things with a careful word and a bribe. But when Jack gets a late night call from David Corliss (Karl Pruner) he begins to question what he does as he is asked to cover up the death of a prostitute. After surviving a fall from a horse he decides enough is enough and decides not only to turn his back on his days as a fixer but shop all of those he knows that are corrupt which unsurprisingly doesn't go down with those he has in his pocket who put pressure on him to stay in the loop.

"The Fixer" is a movie which to be honest crosses familiar ground of a man on the criminal inside wanting to get out but those with connections want to drag him back in. But where as the previous movies have covered this from the perspective of a criminal or mob boss wanting out this one gives us a corrupt lawyer who fixes things for a variety of seedy people. It never really mentions the mob, the closest is a character who is obviously mob but to be honest you wouldn't be surprised if it had as Killoran is very much a mob sort of character with all those connections and secrets.

As such whilst the crisis of conscience came at a surprising and frankly contrived moment in the movie how things play out after that as Jack decides he wants out is pretty predictable. I suppose the storyline is obvious that one of three things is going to happen, he plays balls, he gets killed or he shops the lot of them and comes out clean whilst dealing with violence, probably put in the witness protection progress. It's a shame that the storyline has limited ways to go because it is entertaining with decent pacing and characters who are just a touch to cliche which adds to the easy to watch entertainment.

But whilst "The Fixer" is entertaining it is far off from being great, as I said it is the sort of movie you could happily watch once but feel no need to rewatch later. As such it is fair to say that Jon Voight whilst solid as Jack Killoran doesn't have a great deal of character to work with and is far off from being a great performance. It is the same through out with not one single actor standing out above any other.

What this all boils down to is that "The Fixer" is an okay movie, nothing special and not one which needs a lot of concentration but worth watching the once.


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