Rent Hidden City (1987)

Strange, Unconvincing Conspiracy Thriller - Hidden City review by GI

This is a rather strange, almost abstract, thriller from writer and director Stephen Poliakoff, here foraging in the world of film rather than his usual TV medium work for which he is more renowned. This conspiracy and political thriller lacks any real drama and at times the performances are annoyingly wooden or are they extremely nuanced? Charles Dance, in a very early role, seems to be trying. very hard to make something of the script but he is hampered by his costar Cassie Stuart, who is either unable to deliver any of her lines convincingly, or could it be she is meant to be unrealistic here? This is the debate because the narrative, as it progresses, could be an imagined one in the mind of Dance's character, author James Richards, as the plot is an enigmatic mix of the real, dreams and flashbacks. Richards is approached by a hyper and apparently desperate young woman, Sharon, who claims she has discovered weird government secrets hidden around London in the form of videotapes and files that show the abduction of a woman all relating to a big cover up. Unconvincingly she persuades the academic Richards of this and they embark on trying to locate these secrets by uncovering a whole world of secret tunnels and buildings. There are incompetent officials along the way who make attempts to stop them. In between this plot Richards has dreams of his schooldays and a particular teacher who he bumps into during their search. It's all fairly weird in many ways and it's a film that never really lets you in to make your mind up to exactly what's it really about. By the end it's a film that makes you shrug with indifference as you feel very disappointed that its led nowhere.

Interesting locations - awful plot and acting - Hidden City review by AER

The lead actress in Hidden City (Cassie Stuart) is one of the worst I've ever seen. Her performance and her lines unbalance her double act with Charles Dance, who at least understands what his bad lines mean. The film has a muddled plot about a young woman who enlists a statistician/writer to help her track down a lost film that shows a woman being abducted. The film fails to convince why they would ever team up to solve a mystery. Shadowy government henchmen wreck their homes seemingly searching for something. however, the two twists are lame and poorly resolved - one with a rush job dollop of guess work.

On the other hand, we do get to see some interesting London locations that are not open to the public (and how they were in the 80s) such as the Kingsway Tram Tunnel, some tunnels below Oxford St & Tottenham Ct Rd (which I think are below Holborn), and St Pancras (when it was being renovated/unused) - the Spice Girls stairs.... So limited appeal for everyone except those that want to glimpse a lost London.

At times the film is so 80s it hurts, but this is also a plus. Look out for Richard E Grant, Michelle Fairley, Gerard Horan and others in tiny roles....