The Honorary Consul [Beyond the Limit] **** (1983, Michael Caine, Richard Gere, Bob Hoskins) – Classic Movie Review 8952

Director John Mackenzie’s 1983 British drama The Honorary Consul [Beyond the Limit] is based on the novel by Graham Greene and stars Michael Caine at his best and most convincing as the drunken honorary British consul, Charley Fortnum, who befriends a half-English Paraguayan doctor, Dr Eduardo Plarr (Richard Gere), practising in Argentina only to be cuckolded, betrayed and then mistakenly kidnapped by the rebel guerrillas. Dr Plarr befriends the police and the rebels, and seduces the consul’s beautiful Argentinian wife, the former high-class prostitute Clara (Elpidia Carrillo).

Gere and Bob Hoskins, as the local police chief Colonel Perez, are less well cast and less remarkable, but still very satisfactory, and writer Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) has made an excellent stab at translating Graham Greene’s extremely fine novel into an exciting romantic political thriller. The Honorary Consul is work of quality and an undervalued film, particularly in America, where they retitled it Beyond the Limit when surveys discovered that most Americans did not know what a consul was.

Also in the cast are Joaquim de Almeida, A Martinez, Stephanie Cotsirilos, Domingo Ambriz, Eric F Valdez, Nicolas Jasso, Geoffrey Palmer, Leonard Maguire, Jorge Russek, Erika Carlsen and Ramon Alvarez.

The Honorary Consul [Beyond the Limit] is directed by John Mackenzie, runs 104 minutes, is made by Paramount Pictures, World Film Services, and Parsons & Whittemore Lyddon, is released by Paramount Pictures (1983) (US) and Fox-Rank (1983) (UK), is written by Christopher Hampton, is shot by Phil Meheux, is produced by Norma Heyman, is scored by Stanley Myers, Richard Harvey (composer: additional music) and Paul McCartney (theme), and is designed by Allan Cameron.

It was filmed in Mexico City, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, and in the studio at Shepperton Studio Centre, Middlesex, England.

It cost $11,800,000, and grossed $5,997,566 in the US.

Carrillo was cast as Clara after having appeared with Jack Nicholson in The Border (1982).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8952

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com