THE AISLE SEAT - "RONIN"

by Mike McGranaghan

A man wanders through the streets of Paris before stopping in front of a small, out-of-the-way bar. He looks inside, stashes a small handgun behind a crate, and wanders in for a drink. As he steps inside, several of the other patrons stop to look at him. There's a connection here. Maybe he knows them, perhaps they are expecting him. Nothing is really said, but you can tell. This describes the opening moments of Ronin as well as its overall appeal. From the first frame, you aren't quite sure what's going on. Slowly, the pieces come together. It's the intrigue, the sense of something covert happening under the watchful eye of the City of Lights that makes this a compelling, old-fashioned thriller.

The man who enters the bar is Sam (Robert DeNiro). He identifies himself as a former CIA agent who now does freelance mercenary work (the title Ronin comes from a Japanese word denoting samurai warriors who no longer have masters and must hire themselves out). He and the others present have been assembled to steal a metal case currently in the hands of "men" (again, there's some mystery about who these men are). Sam wants to know what's in the case. The mission is being organized by Deirdre (Natascha McElhone of The Truman Show), an Irish woman who provides no answers. The case needs to be stolen and that's all anyone needs to know.

The others involved include a French logistics man (Jean Reno), a British weapons expert (Sean Bean) and a Russian computer expert (Good Will Hunting's Stellan Skarsgard). A plan is concocted by which the team will ambush the "men" and take control of the case. One of the best scenes in the movie takes place in a hotel lobby as Sam tries to determine how much security the case is under. Once executed, there is a thrilling chase down the tiny streets of Nice. Then something happens that sends the team on a slightly different mission.

Ronin is admittedly light on plot, but it's packed with atmosphere, curiosity, and tension. Director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) makes smart use of the scenic locales, giving the movie the feel of those 1960's "international thrillers." There hasn't been anything quite like this in a long time. Also, because we don't understand the mission from the get-go, there's a lot of suspense as we try to figure it all out.

The majority of the film consists of the team sitting around trying to create strategies to accomplish their task(s). However, when things break out into action, what you get is top-notch. The car chase through Nice is good, but the one that comes later is even better. In fact, it's one of the most harrowing car chases ever put on film. Travelling through Paris at top speeds, the cars venture into a tunnel going the wrong direction. The chase goes on for a while, constantly cranking up the danger and calli ng to mind the great chase scene in William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. in which the cars went the wrong way on a Los Angeles freeway. I have no idea how this was accomplished without killing somebody, but it's one of the most exciting things I've ever seen.

Ronin falls squarely into a tradition of movies about rag-tag teams of specialists skirting the law to accomplish some task. I'm reminded of movies like Sneakers and The Usual Suspects (both of which I count among my favorites). This one's not quite on that level, but it's effective and fun, and that chase scene alone is worth the price of admission.

( out of four)

Ronin is rated R for profanity and violence. The running time is 2 hours.