Accidental Hero

Petty thief Bernie LaPlante (Dustin Hoffman) unintentionally and anonymously saves people involved in a plane crash, an action which triggers a nationwide search for the discovery of this ‘accidental hero’. This search – led by a TV reporter (Geena Davis) who was on board the plane – unearths homeless Vietnam Veteran John Bubber (Andy Garcia), who comes forward to the claim the million dollar reward.
Dustin Hoffman plays a lowlife who happens upon a plane crash and rescues the passengers, but doesn’t really care about the value of his deed or the attendant publicity when the media starts searching for the hero. Another fellow (Andy Garcia) steps into the gap and claims credit, and as his life changes for the better he takes on a Messianic glow. Geena Davis is the cynical television reporter who pushes the latter’s fame in order to keep her story alive, and this film, directed by Stephen Frears (Prick Up Your Ears), takes a few familiar jabs at a manipulative and voyeuristic press. This is essentially an unofficial remake of Meet John Doe, though it is less dramatic and forceful in the end than Frank Capra’s classic. Chevy Chase has an oddly anachronistic part as Davis’ editor (maybe he thought he really was in Meet John Doe), but the film belongs to Hoffman, who makes his character a slightly cleaned-up version of the actor’s own Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. –Tom Keogh