Lori Singer

I refer to her role in the film as thankless because it did nothing to progress the story in anyway. The character was not in any way integral to the plot. We never saw Chris making excuses for being late for dates or cancelling dates or being caught developing the film or sending anything to Daulton by her. And even when Chris knew the jig was up, he still didn't tell her anything he just warned her that people would be asking her questions and that she could honestly say she didn't know anything. These scenes didn't add anything to the movie for me. Not to mention the fact that Lori Singer is a bad actress.

I first saw this movie in the mid-1980s on cable. I also remember watching it in the Fall of 1989 when one of the three original networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) showed it as their Sunday night movie. I also caught it again on cable in the late 1990s.

I was happy to see it was on cable this Sunday as I remembered the great performances by Hutton and Penn. I sat down to watch it with a friend of mine and had completely forgotten that Singer's character was even in the film until she showed up. She had a decent amount of screen-time, but didn't add anything to the story other than one brief scene where Chris acts like he wants to tell her what is going on with him, but he runs out of his apartment. Other than that, her character was (in my case, literally) forgettable.

Good analysis, however the main reason the Soviets dropped Boyce and Lee was because the CIA was onto them and was providing misinformation ("Basura") and the Russians knew it.


"We got a job"
"What kind?"
"The Forever Kind"

Yes, that could very well be true. I've heard of several other movies where that was done; even buddy-buddy comedies. A similar example is how they wrote John Nash's bisexuality out of "A Beautiful Mind" as they thought that some audience members might be put off from the movie as a whole because of it, or they might think his mental illnesses were caused by homosexual contact.

Lori Singer's character was probably created so no one would think the Falcon and the Snowman were homosexual lovers.
___________
I had that notion myself and I agree that it is something that is done to pander to the bigoted and simpleminded sheep in the audience. For a film like this, which was not exactly geared to be a mainstream box office bonanza and Penn is a ugly, as Hutton is cute, I don't think they needed have worried. However, I don't think that Boyce's character was gay and while there is every possibility that he may have been 'bi' and the director was openly gay, I would say that is irrelevant to what the theme and point of the film was. It's just like Schlesinger's MIDNIGHT COWBOY-69', where people claim that Ratso and Joe were gay for each other. While I don't doubt Joe's bisexuality, I don't get or see a homosexual connection for their characters.

She wasn't necessarily a great actress, but her role was not a big enough role anyway, so it doesn't matter.
_____________
No, she isn't a great actress and I doubt she could even be considered just passable as a good one. However, I agree that it didn't really matter, since it was just the standard, peripheral, obligatory girlfriend to the male lead role. If the role had been more important and relevant to the narrative, then a stronger actress may have been needed. She was also a reasonably popular name, due to FOOTLOOSE-84', from the previous year and also FAME-tv series.