Desperate Measures

Barbet Schroeder's Desperate Measures has an "intriguing, if unlikely premise," according its own press mavens. All I can say is, they got it half right. Andy Garcia is a San Francisco policeman whose son is dying of leukemia. Michael Keaton is the boy's perfect DNA match. Unfortunately, he's also a psychopathic killer. Sprung from prison for a bone marrow transplant that could save the kid's life, he manages to escape, offing several cops and hospital workers along the way. And the, uh, intriguing part is that Garcia doesn't want him to get caught. He needs him alive and well...and back in the operating room. Perfunctorily directed, Desperate Measures is yet another attempt to capture that old Silence of the Lambs magic. But Keaton, though he does go to the trouble of lowering his voice and slowing it down, is about as menacing as Barney Fife. Hannibal Lecter would eat him for breakfast.