MOVIE REVIEW : Medals of Valor

However grudgingly, your hat has to go off to “Shining Through.” If ever there were a film that was cheerfully oblivious to its implausibilities, that didn’t seem to know or even care how great a strain it placed on credulity, this has got to be it. Though, like the high-wire artist who is fated to fall once he or she chances to look down, “Shining Through” is doomed to crash and burn, it manages to be amusing in a preposterous way for longer than one would have thought possible.

That’s because “Shining Through” (citywide) begins life with a pair of advantages. An old-fashioned romantic thriller, it counts heavily on star power to keep its far-fetched shenanigans involving, and in Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas it has the horses to do the job. And the best-selling Susan Isaacs novel it is very loosely based on has provided a delicious premise, that of a simple working girl from Queens who, underneath her subway accent, is clever and plucky enough to spy for the good guys during World War II.

Unfortunately, “Shining Through” came into the hands of writer-director David Seltzer, who in scripts for “Table for Five,” “Six Weeks,” “Lucas” and “Punchline” (the last two of which he directed as well) has shown a weakness for the overemotional and a tendency not to know when enough is enough. Though the audacity of Seltzer’s cliche-ridden bravado is enjoyable for a time, its welcome wears out before the film ends.

In one of Seltzer’s more unfortunate additions to the novel, “Shining Through” begins with a present-day framing device, a taping session at a BBC studio where an aged and creaky Linda Voss (yes, that’s our Melanie underneath the latex) is about to reveal to a most respectful interlocutor just what it was she did during the war.

Back we go to 1940 New York City and to a thankfully young and peppy Linda, a fan of espionage movies, who lives in Queens with her German Jewish father and Irish mother. Though only a graduate of Queens Clerical College, not a snooty place like Vassar, Linda has enough respect for herself to apply for a job at a fancy international law firm. Initially turned down, she gets the position when a fortunate accident (there is no other kind in this movie) reveals her facile command of the German language.

Linda is to work for the very preppy Ed Leland (Michael Douglas), a Harvard-educated lawyer who, honest to God, “runs through secretaries like a bowling ball through tenpins.” Ed, having last cracked a smile when Grant took Richmond, has the stiffest upper lip in the New York bar, but he and Linda are soon getting on like there is no tomorrow, which, given that a major war is about to break out, turns out to be pretty much the truth.

Most of Linda’s job involves taking dictation from Ed, who has the habit of vanishing for weeks, returning only to send letters so crammed with obvious code words that Linda soon becomes convinced not only that her boss is a spy but that, given all those films she’s watched, she could outperform him if only she had the chance.

“Shining Through” (rated R for a scene of sensuality) soon gives Linda the opportunity to prove herself, and it is fortunate that the ethics of film criticism, such as they are, forbid one from revealing what goes on once the lady in question is behind German lines in Nazi Berlin and dealing with the likes of master spy Sunflower (John Gielgud), his associate Margrete Von Eberstein (Joely Richardson) and the enigmatic Nazi Franze-Otto Dietrich (Liam Neeson). So much that happens is so enormously unlikely that words like “inconceivable” barely begin to describe the goings on.

Still, despite subplots that never take hold, such as Linda’s spare-time search for her Jewish relatives, watching “Shining Through” causes no pain and that is due almost entirely to the efforts of Douglas and Griffith. Though he is billed first, Douglas’ Ed Leland is less the hero than the hero’s consort, and the actor is required to do little more than wear a variety of spiffy uniforms and look intense enough to defeat Hitler in a staring contest.

As the true stalwart of “Shining Through,” Griffith calls on enough style and brio to carry her over her less-than-ideal German and the fact that one does not necessarily think of her as the spy type. Yet, with her little girl voice and grown-up sultriness, not to mention several very funny lines, Griffith displays an extremely engaging combination of vulnerability and sass and makes us pull for Linda Voss even in the unlikely circumstances the film specializes in. If nothing else about this movie comes shining through, Griffith’s ability as an actress who can carry an audience with her almost anywhere is proved without a doubt.

‘Shining Through’

Michael Douglas:Ed Leland

Melanie Griffith:Linda Voss

Liam Neeson:Franze-Otto Dietrich

Joely Richardson:Margrete Von Eberstein

John Gielgud:Sunflower

A Sandollar production, presented in association with Peter V. Miller Investment Corp., released by Twentieth Century Fox. Director David Seltzer. Producers Howard Rosenman, Carol Baum. Executive producers Sandy Gallin, Seltzer. Co-producer Nigel Wooll. Screenplay Seltzer, based on the novel by Susan Isaacs. Cinematographer Jan De Bont. Editor Craig McKay. Costumes Marit Allen. Music Michael Kamen. Production design Anthony Pratt. Art directors Desmond Crowe, Kevin Phipps. Set decorator Peter Howitt. Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (a scene of sensuality).