This movie almost has it all

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2005)

That TV-stations always have played a dubious role in the selection of their candidates isn't anything new. Only a couple of years ago there was a game show over here where some people weren't allowed because they weren't 'fit for the screen', a nice euphemism for saying that they were just too ugly. So that I saw this in this movie didn't surprise me. But giving the questions and answers to the contestants, that was really something new. But apparently it really happened, because this movie was based on actual events.
In the late 1950's, an idealistic young lawyer who works for a Congressional subcommittee discovers that game shows aren't always played honestly. He focuses on two contestants on the show 21 and finds evidence for the fact that NBC and the sponsor have been screwing with the system. He interrogates Herbert Stempel, an ordinary working-class Jew from Queens and Charles Van Doren, a member of one of America's leading literary families, although he doesn't want to blame them for what has happened. He wants to nail the TV-station, but when the official hearings are held, the big guns escape and the true victims are the two contestants...
If you only want one reason why you shouldn't miss this movie than I would definitely say that you should watch it for the acting. John Turturro is excellent as the Jewish, seemingly media crazy Stempel. But Ralph Fiennes as Charles Van Doren, Rob Morrow as the lawyer,... all did a fine job as well. In fact, I find it very hard to say which actor did the best job, because I liked them all. Of course they would never have been able to give away such a performance if there hadn't been a well-written and very interesting script thanks to Paul Attanasio.
Normally I don't say too much about the writer but this time I will make an exception to my own rule. The reason for that is because Paul Attanasio isn't just an ordinary screenwriter. He is also a movie critic and many of the critics always say that they know so much better what a script should look like, but this man actually proves it by writing a very good one himself. But a good script isn't of course all the work. Without the good direction of Robert Redford this wouldn't have worked either.
All in all this is a very good movie that deserves to be seen for many different reasons. Some very good acting, a nice script, good direction... this movie has it all. The only problem that I had with it was that it was a bit of a slow starter. But don't let that be a reason not to watch it. It's a very fine movie and that's why I give it a score of at least 7.5/10.