Paul Attanasio's masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (6 November 2006)

Paul Attanasio may be the best screenwriter alive. This movie's script challenges every actor, and each actor rises to it - particularly Paul Scofield. His story captures the corruption of the creative class by capitalism, or more precisely the damage done to the imagination by the artists of capitalism, the admakers, better than anything ever put on screen. The story takes place at the zenith of the power of the packaged goods marketers as they wrestle the networks into submission. You don't see the ads being made or any overt presentation of the marketers at work. But they're there, behind the scenes; you can feel the pressure on the programmers. I'd love to see how Attanasio and Redford would look at what they're now doing/trying to do with the internet.