Review: Martin’s Day (1985)

Hardened criminal Richard Harris breaks out of prison, steals a police car and eventually takes a 12 year-old boy (Justin Henry) as hostage when some coppers get ready to approach him. Thus begins a volatile road trip between a desperate convict and a quiet little boy who both happen to be named Martin. Lindsay Wagner plays a prison shrink, James Coburn plays a cop, Karen Black appears briefly as Harris’ ex, and John Ireland is Harris’ recently parolled prison buddy.

 

Truly awful 1985 Canadian film from former Hammer director Alan Gibson (“Dracula AD 1972”, “Crescendo”) is like an awkward, wrong-headed forerunner to Clint Eastwood’s “A Perfect World”. That film was uneven, but at least it gave us one of Kevin Costner’s better performances and never quite overdosed on sentimentality. Costner’s character was still a bad guy, just not quite as bad as his cohort. This film seems to want you to like its main character, and that creates disaster. The sole highlight here is a mere cameo by Canadian character actor Saul Rubinek as a hitch-hiker. The rest is the absolute pits.

 

A mixture of psychotic and saccharine, there’s an unintentionally hilarious bit where escaped con Richard Harris finds out what happened to his beloved shack. Harris isn’t exactly miscast but at no point does this guy have your sympathy nor is he even as charming or interesting as Costner in “A Perfect World”. He could’ve burned his cellmate to death in his escape for one thing, and at one point he even threatens to dismember Henry, too. He’s likely not serious about it, but he does shoot at the kid and is downright scary at times. Hell, he later makes clearly joking threats so maybe the initial threat was a serious one. Later, in what would be considered grooming behaviour in any other film, he robs a toy store for the kid. That Irish lilt and jaunty musical cues never convince you that this guy is anything other than a selfish sociopath. The character and overall tone of the film are all over the map, which you wouldn’t say about “A Perfect World” for all its flaws.

 

Young Justin Henry is basically in Little Ricky Schroeder mode with a bit less emoting. He was better in “Kramer vs. Kramer”. The mediocre Lindsay Wagner plays the clichéd role of the prison shrink who here is depicted as especially moronic. And saying ‘eh?’ doesn’t make you Canadian, sweetie. James Coburn turns up in one of his earliest stock authorty figure supporting roles here. Playing a cop, he’s fine but the role gives him nothing. It’s always nice to see veteran character actor John Ireland but he gets even less here as Harris’ old prison buddy who gets paroled early on. Karen Black’s cameo is a total waste of time.

 

You should always be wary of a film you’ve never heard of with a bunch of actors you’ve very much heard of. I’d ask how this cheap stinker got made, but I’m very much aware of how low-budget films got made in Canada in the 80s. Stock TV movie plot, a bonkers tone, and a creep for a protagonist result in a wildly inconsistent, incompetent film. The schizo screenplay is by Allan Scott and Chris Bryant, who previously paired up for the unforgettable “Don’t Look Now”.

 

Rating: D