Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.
In the Line of Fire is elevated almost entirely by its performances, particularly John Malkovich's chilling, theatrical turn as the assassin Booth and Clint Eastwood's weathered, compelling portrayal of the guilt-ridden Horrigan. Their cat-and-mouse dynamic and phone conversations are genuinely riveting. The plot is a solid but fairly conventional thriller framework — the haunted veteran redemption arc is well-executed but not especially original. Cinematography is competent and workmanlike without being particularly distinctive. Novelty is moderate; the Kennedy guilt angle and Malkovich's antagonist give it personality, but the thriller mechanics follow familiar genre beats. The ending resolves satisfyingly if somewhat predictably within genre conventions.