To illustrate how time changes people, when I was in college I remember seeing the movie ‘The Krays’ on VHS. Dave who was a friend of my roommate Will was visiting and he’d seen the movie too but my roommate hadn’t so we were watching this film and the scene was coming up when Ronald Kray played by Gary Kemp (I’m also a big Spandau Ballet apologist) was about to kiss his boyfriend. Now we both knew that this was going to seriously freak Will out (if only you knew Will in 1991) so we kept quiet and when it happened he was all upset and started cursing and we were laughing and carrying on because two dudes had just kissed, acting like a bunch of seriously deranged lunatics. That WAS 1991 and we WERE teenagers so this was to be expected. Years later my ex-roommate Will is now an AIDS counselor for largely gay teenagers and I’m watching the movie ‘The Walker’ in which Woody Harrelson plays homosexual Washington debutante Carter Page III who among a host of other things is in a relationship with Emek Yoglu (Moritz Bleibtreu). As the movie plays out it occurs to me that these two characters haven’t kissed yet, though they seem to have genuine affection towards each other. Do I want to see a couple of men kiss on screen? Not particularly, but if they don’t then the film is being disingenuous.

Regardless, Carter is what is known as a Walker, a man who escorts old upper crust Washington D.C. ladies to events and what not. He is the son of a Washington political legend, works one day a week at what I’m thinking is a real-estate agency, and plays canasta with a bunch of old ladies. His very best friend is Lynn Lockner (Kristin Scott-Thomas) who is the wife of liberal senator Larry Lockner (Willem Dafoe). It would seem in a fit of sexual confusion back in the 70’s Carter even asked Lynn out on a date. At present however Lynn is having an affair with lobbyist Robbie Konosberg (Steven Hartley), which isn’t surprising since everybody is apparently having some kind of affair with somebody in Washington D.C., but things turn take turn towards

the tragic when Robbie is found murdered in his apartment and Lynn is the first person to see the body. Carter, who is kind enough to drop Lynn off and pick her up from her trysts, is on the verge of calling the police, but Lynn implores him to wait until she is safely scurried away to avoid a scandal. Carter kindly takes the bullet for his friend claiming he was the one that found the body and unwittingly becomes the subject of a murder investigation.

But this is a political thriller and nothing is ever quite what it seems as Carter has to navigate through the myriad of big time politcos, overly ambitious District Attorney’s, duplicitous political wives and the always present shadowy heavy who exists only to threaten and abuse. Can Carter and his boyfriend get to the bottom of the scandal without getting themselves killed in the process? And will they eventually lock lips? We shall see.

Directed by Paul Schrader who has made a number of films of note including ‘Hardcore’, ‘American Gigolo’ and an all-time favorite of mine with ‘Affliction’, ‘The Walker’ has a lot of things working in its favor. Woody Harrelson handles the complex role of the superficial but confusingly conflicted Carter Page very well and the supporting cast is excellent and includes such industry legends such as Charles Durning, Lauren Bacall and Lilly Tomlin. The subject matter is crafted in a way to hold one’s interest and assuming that the viewer isn’t a Washington D.C. insider, it is a peep hole into a world few have or will ever experience. But all that being said, I just didn’t ‘get it’.

I didn’t ‘get’ why Carter Page was so fiercely loyal to Lynn Lockner when Lynn could apparently care less about him, despite the fact that Carter is staring down a murder indictment for her. Was the homosexual Carter in love with Lynn? Whatever was going on there flew completely over my head. The mystery of the dead lobbyist will remain just that even after the credits roll, as a mystery. Why he was killed, who had him killed and why did the ‘who’ have him killed was never explained, at least in a way my simple mind could understand. Perhaps the point being made that his death was irrelevant, and the only thing that matters is that the rich and powerful got off scott free. Perhaps, I don’t know. There were other things involving other characters and their behaviors which had very vague motivations behind their actions which didn’t ring true, but then again I’m not the brightest bulb in the box so take it as you will.

‘The Walker’ was interesting piece of work orchestrated by master of his craft and performed about as well as a movie can be performed but was ultimately very confusing and unsatisfying for me, but may stand as a revelation for another viewer. Maybe a second viewing is in order to this time pay more attention to what was missed the first time around.