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When Capt. Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson) turns up naked, spread-eagled and dead on an urban-warfare training ground, Brenner begins to understand that Camp MacCallum has unsavory secrets. For one thing, Elisabeth was the daughter of the camp commander, Gen. Joseph Campbell (James Cromwell), an immensely popular officer with one eye on the White House. (I'm afraid that naming the general after the famous mythologist may have been the novelist's or the screenwriters' idea of wit.) He's joined by another investigator, the crisp and likable Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe), and "The General's Daughter" spends the next 80 minutes or so titillating us with the possibility that it might shape its numerous leads, clues and shadowy allusions into a coherent plot.

Brenner and Sunhill were apparently once lovers, and their combative relationship often seems like it's about to strike sparks, but never does. The murdered Elisabeth was an expert in psychological warfare, which seems to point the investigation in some sinister directions but is ultimately a red herring. Beneath her air-brushed exterior was a pretty kinky girl -- Brenner and Sunhill find an S/M playroom in her basement, complete with naughty videotapes of Elisabeth and several playmates. We are apparently supposed to think that Elisabeth's sexual proclivities were connected to her death, but the linkage is baffling at best. Like so many Hollywood movies, "The General's Daughter" wants to be lascivious and sanctimonious at the same time. Without giving away anything crucial, here's how the plot works: Women who are the victims of sexual violence turn into freakazoid perverts likely to get killed. But it's really not their fault! Our sexist society has forsaken them.

Some fine actors are trapped in the overly archetypal roles of the supporting cast. From the first moment we see Cromwell's pinched nose and sunken cheeks, we know Gen. Campbell is not the American hero he's supposed to be. But is he the true villain, or is it his maniacally loyal aide (Clarence Williams III), Elisabeth's nervous, chain-smoking superior (a queeny, undisciplined performance from James Woods) or the base's head M.P. (a fine, understated job by Timothy Hutton)? Maybe "The General's Daughter" is trying to argue that the hypocrisy of military culture murdered Elisabeth, but its own hypocrisy is so thick -- as is its ponderous murkiness -- that by the end it has lost any ability to say or mean anything.
salon.com | June 18, 1999

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