The romantic side of ''Sleeping Dogs'' - Smith eventually makes peace with both his estranged wife (Nevin Rowe) and her lover (Ian Mune) - is tied inextricably to the political plot, because everyone except the Smiths' two tiny children turns out to have been involved in the rebellion. Neill remains appealing and believable, even when the film takes its most improbable turns. His Smith isn't always as expressive as he might be, but that's more a function of the screenplay (by Ian Mune and Arthur Baysting, based on a novel by Karl Stead) than of his performance. Neill has been seen by American audiences in a very wide variety of roles: as nasty Damien in ''The Final Conflict,'' as the dreamboat in ''My Brilliant Career,'' even as a knight in television's recent ''Ivanhoe.'' Here he plays a strong, terse, worried man, and does it very well. Neill, by comparison, is resolutely solemn - although, as Smith, he certainly has reason to be. Oates seems larger and livelier than anyone else in the movie, perhaps because he's so assured an actor, perhaps because he's virtually the only person onscreen who ever laughs. But they aren't, and so it is something of a rarity. If films from New Zealand were a commonplace here, perhaps this wouldn't be the best of the bunch. What it lacks in originality, ''Sleeping Dogs'' makes up in intensity and conviction. However, the New Zealand settings are so fresh that they greatly bolster a story that's less so.Īnd Roger Donaldson's sharp, suspenseful direction does wonders for the material. The pursuit of Smith loses its mystery after a while, and it ends on a disappointing note. This is a political chase story, with Smith the unwitting pawn of a violent revolutionary movement, and the object of relentless attention from the military as well. Griffith theater, is intended as a travelogue. Neither this nor any other portion of ''Sleeping Dogs,'' which opens today at the D.W.
He asks to rent a house there, and one of the Maori locals offers suddenly - much too suddenly - to trade a dog and a leaky motorboat for Smith's car. Smith is so unhappy over the marital breakup that he heads for a remote corner of his country, driving across exotic landscapes and arriving at a strange, beautiful island.
Will this be the only side of New Zealand we see, in one of the few films that nation has exported? Not at all. Smith (Sam Neill) leaves his wife and two small children in the first scene of ''Sleeping Dogs,'' walking out of a suburban house that could be anywhere.
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