The Chamber

I suppose that Gene Hackman and Sean Penn are in something like the same league as actors, but in The Chamber Chris O'Donnell takes the Susan Sarandon part, - and Chris O'Donnell will never be in the Susan Sarandon league.

He's not terrible as Adam Hall the young lawyer who is trying to get his grandfather Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman) off death row, but O'Donnell doesn't impress either, and neither does The Chamber.

There of course are some high points in the film, after all Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway are in it, but the overall package is only mediocre.

Faye Dunaway plays Lee, Cayhall's daughter, and it's no surprise that the strongest scene in The Chamber occurs when these two are together (and O'Donnell is fussing around somewhere else.)

Lee has been haunted for decades by something she saw her father do when she was a girl. She has married into wealth but hits the bottle pretty often. When her father's death is imminent and her nephew is shaking the tree down at the law courts the tension mounts and Dunaway gets to strut her stuff as the drunken, haunted socialite.

Faye Dunaway hasn't given the performances to show her range for years. Bonnie And Clyde was released 30 years ago in 1967! Then Chinatown and Three Days Of The Condor were filmed in the mid seventies. Since then only The Handmaid's Tale (1990) are notable to my knowledge, with questionably luminous movies such as Supergirl, Beverly Hills Madam, Barfly and Cassanova intervening.

Gene Hackman won't win another Oscar for his performance in The Chamber because the overall tone of the film is too low, but his wander down death row just before they might execute him (no, I won't give the ending away!) is memorable I suppose.

I wonder if we might see a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Faye Dunaway though?