Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
Russell Crowe stars as a fired tobacco company employee who decides to become a whistle-blower about health coverups. Based on a story based on real events.
Loved
Acting by Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer and Al Pacino.
Liked
Very interesting story.
Thoughts
A great dramatic film about journalism.
I was amazed by how un-boring it was to watch a two hour forty minute drama about corporate coverups. Credit goes to fantastic acting by the Crowe, Pacino and Plummer. After finally watching this, I agree that Crowe was robbed of the Best Actor award in 1999 (no offense to Kevin Spacey in American Beauty). You instantly feel his character's paranoia, uncomfortable social skills, and most importantly, his internal conflicts.
Plummer and Pacino round off a great acting trio. How Plummer did not even get nominated for Best Supporting as Mike Wallace is beyond me. With his un-Pacino-like performance here and his excellent Pacino-like performance in Any Given Sunday, I'd say 1999 was Al Pacino's last good year.
This film also had very strong writing. I was fascinated by the plot and shocked that I never knew about these events. (Turns out, for sake of good story-telling, many details were rearranged.) In my current dialogue writing course, I learned that dialogue is to be used as action. This film was a perfect example of how to make a story interesting without relying on bells and whistles. Even the dialogue was not flashy; it just moved. The danger with movies about politics/business is either it's unrealistically boring or confusingly boring. Here it struck the perfect balance in informing and entertaining me.
My only complaint was Michael Mann's visual style sometimes got in the way of the story. Minor distraction. The length was a tad long too.
I know people praise All the Presidents Men all the time, but I found The Insider to be the best of its genre, thanks to heart-felt acting and fascinating story.
What I would change
Nothing.
