主人公・水谷雫は、幼少期から学年トップの成績を取ることしか興味が無く、生き物に対しての慈しみも乏しい。小学生時、クラスで飼っていたウサギが死に、皆が悲しむ中でも、元々動物が苦手だったこともあり、宿題を優先する発言をし、周囲から「ドライアイス」とあだ名をつけられる勉強の虫だった。 高校へ入学して間もなく、担任から隣席との理由で依頼されてプリントを届けたことがきっかけで、入学式当日に流血事件を起こし、停学処分解除後も不登校を続ける問題生徒・吉田春（通称「ハル」）と知り合う。 本当の友達がいないハルの思い込みや勘違いも手伝い、非常に気に入られ、迷惑しながらも雫はハルの世話を焼くようになる。やがてハルは登校を始めて2人の感情に友情が芽生え、次第に恋愛に近いものに変化していく。 実は頭脳明晰だが、暴力的で奇行が目立つために友人を求めながらも孤立してきたハルと、成績こそ全てと優秀な自分を維持するために他人との関わりを排除してきた雫、不器用な2人が出会ったことにより、取り巻く人間関係もそれまでとは大きく変わっていく。
Oktober, and the trees are stripped bare. The Quiller Memorandum is directed by Michael Anderson and adapted to screenplay by Harold Pinter from the novel "The Berlin Memorandum" written by Elleston Trevor. It stars George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow and Senta Berger. Music is by John Barry and cinematography by Erwin Hillier. There's no frills and graces about The Quiller Memorandum, it follows a straight spy drama narrative that pitches Segal (excellently cool) into Berlin to unearth the location of some Neo-Nazis. He gets involved with the sensual Berger whilst battling his wits with an insidious Sydow. Location photography is pleasing, as is the swirly score, but even though there's a nice ambiguity to the finale, there's a feeling of disappointment that actually not a great deal has happened in over an hour and half of film. Not dull exactly, and in fact there's enough interest to, well, hold the interest, but for every leanly written passage of play there also comes a yearning to have some espionage pizazz to thrill the senses. 6/10
Unfortunately, time hasn't been very kind to this rather stilted cold war thriller. When two British agents are found dead in Berlin, it falls to "Quiller" (George Segal) to track down the elusive "Oktober" (Max von Sydow) before he gets his own comeuppance. The cat and mouse game is actually quite well executed - both sides desparate to find the location of the other's secret headquarters, and to establish whom is working for their enemies, but sadly Michael Anderson just can't quite elevate the film above a rather statically paced affair. Segal is efficient, but hardly charismatic and even Alec Guinness and the usually dependable George Sanders don't really inject much of a sense of menace. Too much of the jeopardy is just a little too contrived, and though it is does move along well enough, its just a little too hollow with nowhere near enough action to have it stand out. John Barry provided the score and the theme song "Wednesday's Child" (with Mack David), but there is little else here for us to remember.
