William Hurt is superb as a Moscow militia detective caught between his desires to be simply a good cop and the unfathomable motives of the secret Soviet government, all complicated by an unexpected love for Joanna Pacula.

Neither Dennis Potter's screenplay nor the heavyweight cast can raise this adaptation of Martin Cruz Smith's best-selling spy novel above the ordinary.

By the end of Gorky Park, we realize that it's not the solution that matters, but what the case itself forced the people to discover about themselves.

Has its wintry moments in the snow.