Soviet Ghosts Resurface In Soggy 'Phantom'
Harris looks suitably haggard as the captain, who drinks heavily to control flashbacks and hallucinations resulting from a previous injury. (Maybe it works for him, but not for the audience, which is subjected to a barrage of shock cuts.) Fichtner keeps his tight-lipped dignity, even during his character's preposterous closing gambit. As for Duchovny, he's unpersuasive in a part no actor could have made convincing.
There are no Yankees aboard this rusty sub, but the Soviets can't stop talking about them. Indeed, Phantom turns on competing visions of the American worldview: Bruni asserts that the U.S. military will attempt to destroy the USSR whenever it gets the chance, while Demi — who's been to New York with his dancer wife — responds that the life-loving Yanks will try to do the right thing.
Maybe some of the time. It was, after all, an American crew that made this soggy flick.