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Alice Bowman is world-traveled and savvy but nothing could prepare her for this. Rebels in a politically volatile Latin American country have kidnapped her husband for ransom. The asking price: $3 million. Meg Ryan plays Alice and Russell Crowe is Terry Thorne, the hostage retrieval expert who becomes Alice's only hope in navigating a high-stakes game where terrorists value money over life, in this suspense-packed film named one of the year's 10-best by Time. Taylor Hackford directs, steadily tightening the emotional vise as Terry and Alice try to smoke out the perpetrators and rescue Alice's husband (David Morse)...and as both confront the gnawing awareness that they're attracted to each other. Taut, thought-provoking and terrific, Proof Of Life is gripping proof that the romantic thriller is forcefully alive.
"Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe electrify the screen!" Sandy Newton, CBS-TV/Dallas
"A top-drawer adventure thriller with superb performances." Jeffrey Lyons, WNBC-TV/New York
"Casablanca with firepower." Richard Schickel, Time Magazine
Editor's Note
Around the world, between 20,000 and 50,000 people are kidnapped each year. In Taylor Hackford's suspense-filled adventure film, American businessman Peter Bowman (David Morse) is traveling in a Latin American country when a group of criminals take him as their hostage and hold him for ransom. The megacorporation he works for sends in an expert hostage negotiator, Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe), to settle on a ransom with the kidnappers, an antigovernment faction. Thorne earns the reluctant trust of Bowman's wife, Alice (Meg Ryan), and begins trying to win Bowman's freedom, but conflict with Bowman's employers, missteps with the kidnappers, and Thorne's growing attraction to Alice threaten to derail his efforts. Crowe and Ryan are excellent as thrown-together allies under pressure, and Morse's descent from collected businessman to desperate hostage anchors the film. Watch for former NYPD BLUE sensation David Caruso as Crowe's partner. PROOF OF LIFE is based on an article entitled "Adventures in the Ransom Trade," written by William Prochnau, which was published in the May 1998 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
| Features | Full Frame - 1.33 |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 10/23/2001 |
| Running Time: 135 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2000 | | Catalog ID: 19052 | | UPC: 00085391905233 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...Mr. Crowe radiates a stubborn, heroic solidity..." 12/08/2000 p.E8Box Office
"...A well-paced drama buoyed by exceptional performances....The stoic yet lonely quality Crowe lens his onscreen persona strikes a perfect balance..." 02/01/2001 p.66 Total Film
"...Crowe is utterly convincing....[With] an excellent turn from David Morse..." 04/01/2001 p.88 Hollywood Reporter
"...PROOF OF LIFE is a first-rate thriller that also manages to be an intimate drama, a journalistic investigation and a political farce..." 12/01/2000 p.13-52 Salon.com 7 of 10
As a dramatic actress, Ryan has been gaining confidence from picture to picture... She and Crowe have an odd, push-pull chemistry; you want them to cut out the nonsense and get together... - Michael Sragow
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