Shining Through

During the Second World War, Linda Voss, secretary to a New York lawyer, discovers that her employer is actually an intelligence officer. Because she speaks German she is sent to Berlin and placed as a housemaid in the home of a senior Nazi officer. David Seltzer writes and directs. Melanie Griffith plays Linda and Michael Douglas plays her employer Ed Leland, with Liam Neeson and John Gielgud. The source is Susan Isaacs's novel. What it is known for is the reception. At the Razzies it took more awards than anything else that year, including worst picture, worst actress, worst director and worst screenplay, and became one of the most cited failures of its kind. The problem is indecision about tone. The film wants to be a spy thriller, a wartime melodrama and a romance at once, and Linda taking on an operation in Berlin with no training at all was singled out as the weakest link in the plot. For all that, it is expensive and carefully made: the period design, the costumes and the Berlin material were built with a serious budget. Griffith's performance is left carrying more than it can hold. Who it is for: viewers curious about big studio melodrama in the nineties and about famous failures. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a spy thriller. It loses credibility early and the last section rests entirely on coincidence.