this belabor and sloppy spy melodrama feature two buffoonish ( one idealistic and one drug addle ) california kid deal secret to the kgb never seem to get enough steam up to sustain any tension and suspense before it die a very slow death over two hour later . john schlesinger finish product give the impression that he be asleep in his director chair most of the time a the film lag and the actor sleep walk and save for the highly annoy over the top performance of sean penn . childhood altar boy and friend chris ( tim hutton ) and daulton ( penn ) devise a plan to sell secret to the kgb when chris land a job that allow him access to top secret government material . disillusion by what he see a u meddle in foreign affair the idealistic chris and the drug hungry daulton make contact with the russian and begin to funnel them classified material . when chris decide he want out thing begin to unravel at a lackadaisical pace . the eighty be not kind to distinguish director john schlesinger . in the 60 and 70 he have a series of critically acclaim film in both england and america but then come honky tonk freeway in 1981 and it mark the beginning of the end . the falcon and the snowman more or less put a lid on it . lack the suspense of marathon man and the quality performance ( hoffman voight and christie and jackson and finch and olivier ) he have coax from lead in the past falcon go in circle most of the way . sean penn chew scenery from start to finish in such an obnoxious fashion you find yourself encourage his torturer to do more to him . tim hutton be govern by his limited acting chop and most of his scene show a need for more rehearsal time . lori singer a hutton girlfriend play it mute most of the way with schlesinger content to film her vapid expression . when she do emote you understand why . only david suchet a the kgb handler with a pierce eyed introspective presence and restraint acquits himself well .