Witness

Directed by Peter Weir, Witness follows Harrison Ford’s Philadelphia cop John Book as he hides out in an Amish community after a little boy (Lukas Haas’ Samuel) witness a murder in the big city – with complications ensuing as Book finds himself drawn to Samuel’s recently-widowed mother (Kelly McGillis’ Rachel). It’s immediately apparent that Weir, working from Earl W. Wallace and William Kelley’s screenplay, isn’t looking to deliver a traditional actioner here, as Witness, which opens with a fairly hypnotic stretch set on Amish farmland, generally comes off as a deliberately-paced drama that just happens to contain a small handful of thriller-oriented moments – with such sequences admittedly packing an impressively tense and captivating punch. There’s little doubt, then, that Witness benefits quite strongly from Weir’s often spellbinding directorial choices and the uniformly stirring performances, with, in terms of the latter, Ford turning in next-level work that undoubtedly remains a high-water-mark within his cinematic oeuvre (and it’s clear, too, that Ford’s various costars fare equally well). And although the 112 minute running time admittedly results in a few lulls here and there, Witness, which closes with an exciting, engrossing climax, predominantly comes off as a smart, refreshingly adult bit of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking that rarely unfolds as one might’ve anticipated.

***1/2 out of ****