TWILIGHT

No, this has nothing to do with vampires.  It's a 1998 film with an impressive cast - Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, Reese Witherspoon, James Garner, Stockard Channing.  

The fact that despite this cast I'd never heard of it rang immediate alarm bells, and sure enough Wikipedia confirmed it was a box-office bomb.  But it received mixed reviews, so some critics liked it, and it's a thriller so why not give it a whirl?

Paul Newman is Harry, a retired cop and private eye, who is living as the guest of Jack and Catherine (Hackman and Sarandon), who are a married couple, and who were once famous movie stars.

There's a mystery as to what happened many years ago to Catherine's first husband.  And when someone starts rooting around in that mystery people start getting killed.

So the film, which is sedate to say the least, follows Harry as he tries to solve the twin mysteries as to what happened in the past, and who is the murderer now.

The main reason to watch this is to enjoy seeing Newman.  For some reason I never really enjoy his performances when he was at his peak, whereas I can happily watch him at this late stage of his career.

James Garner also comes out of this well; his scenes with Newman stand out.

Hackman and Sarandon do their best but the screenplay doesn't give them much to work with.

Channing may be the least convincing cop I've ever seen on film.

Witherspoon doesn't get to do much but as she is an up-and-coming starlet and it's 1998 she's obliged to display her boobs quite unnecessarily in an early scene - hopefully we've progressed beyond that now.

The mystery itself isn't much to speak of.  The bigger mystery is how such a cast were persuaded to appear in such a flimsy vehicle.