Presumed Innocent

Here's another one from Joe McDonald:

If there was ever a movie that dealt with the compromising of integrity in as many shades of grey as "Presumed Innocent" does, then I would like to know: ****.

"PI" is the story of district attorney Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) whose former mistress, Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi), is a gorgeous co-worker who is murdered. To say the plot thickens when we discover that she has also had an affair with Ford's supervisor (Brian Dennehy), who assigns Ford to her murder case, is to only begin to unravel the Pandora's box that Polhemus' death creates. Sabich is still whipped on her and his wife sees that, he is less than enthusiastic to assume responsibility for this case which his boss thrust on him, and then lo and behold, he becomes the prime suspect. To boot, we have missing evidence, the presiding judge's connection to Polhemus, and the prosecuting attorneys unseemly connection to Sabich's office.

The situation is a complete mess, and yet the script is written with an airtight clarity that makes us care about our flawed protagonist and understand the layers of agendas that permeate this movie. This is one of Ford's most underappreciated performances. He is spellbound by a seductive, enticing woman with an agenda, but he he is a man of principle as well. We see the exact moment when his principles lose her attraction, and his erotic fix is lost forever. He is a lost puppy, thereafter.

If Scacchi, on the other hand, could mass produce, bottle and market her sexuality, she could retire after six months. She is sumptuous, power hungry, tragic, and maybe just a tad bit kind-hearted. Wow. And finally, I am so sorry to see Raul Julia and his magnetic performance as Sabich's defense attorney. This was one of his most memorable roles before he died in 1994. He is the straw that stirs the drink once he is hired: measured, well studied, sympathetic, never expends more energy than needed, but strikes hard and effectively when the iron is hot.

This is one of the best courtroom drama I have even seen. And the ending turned me upside down; once I thought it ended, it resurrected itself for just a little longer. Sad, tragic, brilliant.

Blades of Glory

The Will Ferrell figure skating comedy BLADES OF GLORY, which could just have easily been entitled WILL FERRELL FIGURE SKATING COMEDY is intermittently funny, but it’s the kind of movie whose comedy comes from its situations, not its characters. That’s because the movie has no real characters, but rather characatures. There’s Ferrell as, essentially, Elvis Stojko and John Heder as Brian Boitano. When the two are banned from Men’s Singles competition, they do what Brian Boitano would do: they man up and start skating doubles.

That’s pretty much your movie, and it’s intermittently entertaining as long as you’re willing to go along with its central premise: that figure skating is ridiculous and that male figure skaters are pussies. That premise, and the gags BLADES OF GLORY milks from it, is pretty much all the movie has to offer. This would spell disaster if they’d cast anyone other than Ferrell at his schticky best, Heder in full mincing ninny mode, and (married) comic geniuses Will “Final Countdown” Arnett and Amy Poehler as their hilariously evil foils. (Aside: I’d never accept an invitation to the Arnett/Poehler house for dinner. I don’t think I could get out of there without peeing my pants with laughter.) This cast takes a paper-thin (and potentially offensive) premise and characters with less depth than an 8-yr-old’s poetry and, amazingly, makes them work. BLADES OF GLORY didn’t make me out-and-out guffaw, but it did keep me chuckling. That’s good enough for an in-flight movie, and that’s all I needed when I saw it.

Breach

BREACH, based on the true story of the Robert Hanssen Treason Investigation, features Ryan Philippe as the young FBI agent assigned to Hanssen’s staff for the sole purpose of investigating him. He’s an interesting enough fellow, but Chris Cooper, as Hanssen, blows him and everyone else off the screen every moment he’s up there.

The story itself, of the biggest spy investigation in FBI history, makes for an interesting tale. Add a sense of verisimilitude gained by using many actual DC-area locations and paying attention to geography (When Hanssen, stuck in traffic, grouses that he could walk to FBI headquarters in ten minutes, I thought, “Well, maybe 15.” That’s pretty good, seeing as how a popular television series like 24 expects us to believe that Jack Bauer can make from LAX to Hollywood in five.), and I believed I was watching a reenactment of events, not a dramatization.

BREACH is cast with a number of respected character actors, including geek favorite Gary Cole, but Chris Cooper deserves praise for creating a Robert Hanssen that’s completely believable, corrupt, and more than a little sympathetic. Cooper first came to my attention in the magnificent LONE STAR, and since then, he’s made a career of playing multidimensional, conflicted character with whom we can invest. Watching him play the warning signs I learned about in basic counterintelligence classes (and which anyone can learn by enjoying a visit to DC’s exceptional Spy Museum), I saw the bitterness, the vanity, the twisted sense of duty, the rage at marginalization I was taught to look for in people with access to sensitive information. I knew that Hanssen was a traitor, an accessory to murder, and a generally unlikable character, and I expected him to get his comeuppance. I didn’t expect him to break my heart, as he does here. Truly, Chris Cooper is one of the best actors working in American film.

I have a transatlantic flight coming up, and I think I’ll spend part of it watching the commentary with Eric O’Neill, the FBI agent played by Philippe. I want to see just how much of I was watching really happened.

Interesting aside: At the Spy Museum, they show a video interview with one of the women who first figured out that Hanssen was a spy. She had been conducting interviews with the (very large) suspect pool, and one of her stock questions was, “If you were going to spy on America for the Russians, how would you do it?” People really seemed to groove on this question, taking it as an interesting thought experiment and providing detailed, creative answers. Hanssen was the only interviewee who clammed up and got combative. That was the “A-ha!” moment that, eventually led to his arrest. Fascinating stuff.

The Good Shepherd

Filmmaker Joe McDonald sent me his thoughts on the THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I enjoyed his writing so much that I thought I'd pass it along to you.

Believe the peanut gallery, "TGS" was booorrring: **. I am so glad, in hindsight, that you were so compelled to suggest "Rocky Balboa" when it was "TGS" that I really had my eye on last Christmas.

Matt Damon plays Edward Wilson, a Yale graduate who, I believe, belonged to that same stupid secret society that Bush belongs to that signifies the beginning of a career of puppet-mastering in offices of power and prestige. At the cusp of graduation, Damon is approached by an army general (Robert DeNiro) to help form an organization that creates information and misinformation to assist the war effort during WWII, an organization we have come to know now as the CIA. And so begins a life of seven-day work weeks, talking in crypto-speak, a friendless environment, and alienating oneself from the family Damon loves. When he is approached by the same army general to head a similar peacetime organization to fight the Cold War, gee, how can he resist?

Why did this movie not work? There were no goals in this movie. I needed to see the value of having a CIA during World War II and thereafter. I needed to see Damon achieve a victory during the war that demonstrates his value to such an organization and seeing him get hooked. I needed to see some history and background of the CIA. This could have been soooo interesting. What I saw was the stoic faces, the subtextual conversations, shady characters, and close acquaintances getting killed during the war. I kept yelling at the TV for Damon to ditch the job, dump Angelina Jolie, and find that hot, deaf girl he was dating in college so that he can teach poetry at some northeast prep school like he wants to.

"TGS" looked fabulous visually, the cast is an all-star team of Oscar nominees and winners, the set dec and costumes are second to none. Hell, the screenwriter is Eric Roth ("Munich", "Forrest Gump", "The Insider"). What happened here?! Were all the good parts edited out? Is DeNiro a bad director?

What I do know is that I began to balance my checkbook at the halfway point of this movie. Pass on it.