SOURCE: Simon, John. “Benton in Clover, Coens in Bilge.” National Review 50, no. 6 (6 April 1998): 58-9.

In the following review, Simon compliments Twilight as a “rare crime story that makes sense.”

Some years ago Robert Benton, Richard Russo, and Paul Newman came up with a winner, Nobody's Fool, and here they are with another one, Twilight, directed by Benton, co-written by him and Russo, and again starring Newman. This time, though, it's a very different story, about rich, amoral people in Los Angeles, part detective thriller, part romantic triangle (sort of), part chronicle of complicated friendships and betrayals, a way-we-live-now morality tale.

Adroitly mixed, these elements coexist remarkably. At the center is Harry Ross (Newman), once a cop, then a private eye, who manages to track down, in the film's prologue, the runaway daughter of wealthy Jack and Catherine Ames (Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon). The underage girl, Mel (Reese...