"You see why you need this thing?" Timothy Dalton says, waving a red foam clown nose in Anthony Edwards' face early on in Hawks. "It's the only muscle left." But the terminally ill Dalton is speaking figuratively, using the clown nose to illustrate a point about the value of hope in the face of hopelessness. And he reinforces his point again and again, as he dons the nose to cheer up Edwards, his hospital suitemate. Suffering from a rare bone disease that confines him to a wheelchair and makes him ill at dramatic moments, Edwards needs all the cheering up he can get. After escaping from the hospital by donning scrubs and stealing an ambulance, the two men spend an awkward night entertaining an aging hooker before deciding to die with dignity the only way they know how: by heading for Amsterdam to visit a famous brothel. They're distracted en route, however, by Janet McTeer and Camille Coduri, two young English women in search of the pregnant McTeer's unsuspecting Dutch "fiancé." Inspired by Dalton's life-affirming clown nose, Edwards decides the terminal duo should take a chance by helping the women out. But Dalton is the one who falls in love, more or less, with the mousy McTeer, engaging in a one-night stand that leaves his chemo-damaged hairline dyed all sorts of weird shades. When McTeer and Coduri head back to England, Dalton eases his friend into death by administering his medication and hiring colorfully attired hookers to attend to him. After Edwards dies, Dalton returns to England to wed McTeer in a service that manages to be cheery and life-affirming, even though Dalton opts against wearing the clown nose.
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