Protocol

Directed by Herbert Ross, Protocol follows nightclub waitress Sunny Ann Davis (Goldie Hawn) as she saves the life of a Middle Eastern dignitary and is subsequently recruited by the American government to work in its protocol department. There’s ultimately little doubt that Protocol fares best in its goofy and unabashedly larger-than-life first half, as Ross, working from Buck Henry’s script, effectively delivers a briskly-paced comedy that emphasizes Sunny’s fish-out-of-water exploits to entertaining (if far from hilarious) effect – with the compelling atmosphere heightened quite substantially by a predictably winning and charismatic turn by Hawn. It’s rather disappointing to note, then, that Protocol eventually segues into a midsection littered with ineffective, padded-out sequences, including a wild-party interlude that just goes on and on, while the action-packed, set-in-the-Middle-East third act seems to have been ported over from another movie entirely – which does, in spite of an admittedly satisfying conclusion, cement the picture’s place as a watchable yet often excessively erratic endeavor.

**1/2 out of ****

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