In the Line of Fire

Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.

A sleek, old-fashioned thriller that critics largely embraced for its craft and its two leads: Eastwood playing to every strength he has built over decades, and Malkovich as a villain whose cat-and-mouse phone calls with the hero are the film's real engine. The gap between the near-universal critical approval and the more measured audience reaction suggests it works better as a prestige entertainment than as a crowd-pleasing thriller.