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The General's Daughter Directed by Simon West Starring John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe and James Cromwell

Army Warrant Officer Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is the pissed-off, self-righteous investigator who's always at the center of this kind of movie, and unfortunately his character doesn't go a lot deeper than that outline suggests. We see Brenner undercover (with an atrocious good-ol'-boy accent and a big cigar) as he tracks a nutso militia type hoping to buy illicit weapons, and we see him as himself, soberly investigating a gruesome rape and murder on the Spanish moss-shaded grounds of Fort MacCallum, Ga. But we don't get any sense of who this guy really is or what he believes, why he's in the Army or where his loyalties lie -- crucial issues for the protagonist of a mystery. Early on, a too-obviously nefarious general barks at Brenner, "You're going to have to decide: Are you a soldier or a policeman?" -- as if those categories are mutually exclusive, or that one is much better than the other.

Like most moviegoers, I've generally rooted for Travolta's comeback, but it's time for producers to realize he's not a strong enough actor to carry a picture by himself. The script, by Christopher Bertolini and Hollywood legend William Goldman (based on a novel by Nelson DeMille), provides Travolta some zingers to deliver in his customary deadpan, but he'd seem pretty lost in the swamp of "The General's Daughter" if it weren't for his, well, size. After visibly battling middle-aged spread in his last few pictures, Travolta has evidently hit the weight room, emerging with shoulders and pecs of almost Schwarzeneggerian scale. I guess he makes a convincing career military man at this weight, but his terpsichorean days, it would seem, are over.

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