Film Review: Half Moon Street (1986)

Desperate times require desperate measures. This is the view taken by the protagonist of Half Moon Street, 1986 thriller directed by Bob Swaim. Dr. Laurene Slaughter (played by Sigourney Weaver) is American academic living in London who, despite Harvard degree and being employed by prestigious think thank, can’t make ends meet and barely pays the rent. One day someone sends her VHS tape describing operations of Jasmine Agency, elite escort service that caters to top politicians, businessmen and other dignitaries in London. Dr. Slaughter decides to apply for a job there and soon her erudition and command of various languages make her popular and she begins to solve her financial problems. One of the clients is Lord Bulbeck (played by Michael Caine), well-connected politician with whom she falls in love and starts romantic relationship. Bulbeck is, on the other hand, at the same time involved in delicate Middle East peace negotiations and, after a while, begins to neglect Dr. Slaughter. It turns out that someone has manipulated Dr. Slaughter into becoming escort as well making sure that Bulbeck is her client.

Based on Doctor Slaughter, novel by American writer Paul Theroux, this film had plot that represented interesting genre combination of spy thriller, romance and drama. Bob Swaim, American director who had mostly worked in France, utterly failed to exploit its potential. The budget is low, but even with that taken into consideration, Half Moon Street is directed so ineptly that at times looks very much like television production. The main problem is the lack of balance between various subplots – the film takes most emphasis on the protagonist and her moral and existential dilemmas, while the segment dealing with political conspiracy is introduced almost like an afterthought. There was a little feminist flavour in the script, at least in the scenes that showed protagonist being disrespected and ignored by her male superiors in seemingly prestigious think tank; these are contrasted with the scenes that suggests that the career in escort service allows her to really take her life back in her hands. This potentially subversive idea is compromised with too much exploitative content, namely large number of scenes in which Sigourney Weaver appears topless or nude. Although some of her fans might be delighted, Swaim somehow made all those scenes look non-erotic. Final disappointment comes with deus ex machina ending. While Weaver and Caine, as true professionals, do a good job and even have some chemistry together, their efforts aren’t enough to prevent Half Moon Street from ending as failure.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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