There’s enough menace and romance in Gorky Park to appeal to many, especially those helped by the memory of Martin Cruz Smith’s successful novel.
At the center, however, William Hurt is superb as a Moscow militia detective caught between his desires to be simply a good cop and the unfathomable motives of the secret Soviet government, all complicated by an unexpected love for Joanna Pacula.
Director Michael Apted sets Hurt up well with the discovery of three mutilated, faceless bodies in the city’s Gorky Park, leading Hurt to suspect this is all the affair of the dangerous KGB and much to be avoided by plodding policemen such as himself.
Very quickly, Hurt’s investigation brings him into contact with Lee Marvin, a wealthy American who enjoys high privilege in important Soviet circles, obviously not simply because he’s a successful trader in sabless.
Apted, cinematographer Ralf D. Bode and production designer Paul Sylbert do an excellent job in making Helsinki stand in for Moscow, where they were denied access for filming.
