The General's Daughter

One thing to be thankful for in director Simon West's film is that John Travolta abandons his shit-eating Southern accent within the first few minutes. On the other hand, at least the drawl added some distinction, however annoying, to what is otherwise an inert pastiche of clichés and generic conventions. West, who injected a note of subversive black humor into the crash-and-burn Con Air, abandons all pretense of originality in this bloated, overdetermined mystery that drowns a first-rate cast and some worthwhile issues in its high-concept morass.

Travolta plays Paul Brenner, a hardboiled military investigator assigned to a murder case on a steamy Georgia Army base. The victim is the title daughter, Captain Elisabeth Campbell (photogenic newcomer Leslie Stefanson), a brilliant officer in the psychological-operations division who is found naked and tied to stakes one night on the camp's urban-warfare training ground. Needless to say, the killing unsettles her father, General "Fighting Joe" Campbell (James Cromwell), who has the vice-presidency in his sights -- especially when Brenner's investigation uncovers a secret S&M grotto in Elisabeth's basement.

Who's guilty? Could it be the general's ruthlessly loyal adjutant, Colonel Fowler (Clarence Williams III)? The eager-beaver but vaguely unwholesome provost marshal Colonel Kent (Timothy Hutton)? The committee of writers who transformed the somewhat coherent potboiler on which the film is based into swamp gas? Or perhaps Travolta, who seems determined to celebrate his career renaissance by turning himself into a second-rate Bruce Willis? Despite the arch maneuverings of James Woods as a twisted officer with a past, and a ruefully witty Madeleine Stowe as an old flame of Brenner who's also assigned to the case, the biggest mystery here is why this film got made.

-- Peter Keough