Gorky Park (1983)

Renko (William Hurt) plays a Soviet cop, stuck with a case involving three dead bodies found in a park with their faces cut off. All Renko wants to do is find some evidence that will enable him to pass it off to the KGB, but matters are complicated, as they usually are, by Americans. Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin) is an American businessman who always seems to be around, even if Renko can't figure out how he's involved. And then an American cop (Brian Dennehy) shows up, because one of the corpses is his brother. There's a young woman (Joanna Pacula) involved, but Renko can't get her to tell him anything, but he finds himself unwilling to hand it off to the KGB by then.

Which leads to a chase scene where Dennehy tries to flee Renko across a train yard. Right as I was thinking both that Dennehy is not really built for running and that he was built to beat the hell out of a stringbean like William Hurt, Hurt caught up to him and Dennehy proceeds to whup his ass.

The movie really plays up the politicking and deal-making. Renko's making deals with the KGB, but they're making other deals with Osborne, but Renko and Dennehy are working together in secret, and it's unclear where the young woman's allegiances lie. The movie drags a bit for it, because it feels like there are a lot of conversations that boil down to Renko and Osborne doing the, "I know you're up to something." "I know you know." "I know you know I know," bit, or Renko trying to get the girl to tell him something and her refusing. I'm sure it's mean to be about the difficulty in teasing out the truth when that's a very dangerous commodity, but it comes off as wheel-spinning.

Hurt's performance is fine, so is Dennehy's. It's not an odd couple/buddy cop movie - it doesn't focus on those two enough for that - but they play off each other all right. Marvin seems bored mostly, but it fits his character, who thinks he's got the jump on everyone, and there's no real competition to this. The movie does resort to a shootout near the end, although it's restrained by '80s standards (no Uzis!) But Osborne spends most of it holding a rifle with a scope with one arm, braced against his hip. Not really a good firing position, but he's that sure of things he can afford to be indifferent.