If only all films were this cinematic, this engaging.

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2001)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Having taken the crime thriller just about as far as it could go with his last film, Heat, writer/director Michael Mann has shifted his attention to staging this gripping and elaborate drama-documentary. Based on a true-life magazine article, The Insider follows the contrasting fortunes of Jeffery Wigand and Lowell Bergman, two men driven by different incentives, yet both compelled into achieving the same result: to reveal to the American public the shocking truth that will result in the biggest public reform issue the nation has ever seen. Having been unfairly fired, Wigand, a former research scientist at tobacco giants Brown & Williamson, is prepared to go on national television and reveal the facts behind the company's part in 'impact boosting', a chemical process designed to artificially increase the addictiveness of nicotine. Bergman, a producer at CBS' '60 Minutes', one of the country's most popular prime-time current affairs shows, feels it is his programme's moral duty to air what Wigand has to say, claiming it is the public's right to know. However, after agreeing to go ahead with the interview, Wigand comes up against several moral and legal dilemmas. By spilling the secrets he knows, he will be breaking a still-binding confidentiality agreement he signed with Brown & Williamson. They in turn have made it clear that by going public, Wigand will be placing the lives of his family in jeopardy, while at the same time risking a lengthy prison sentence for himself. Making constant use of stark close-ups and jittery, anxious camerawork, The Insider succeeds on several levels. As a drama, Mann's film is both engaging and compelling, with his deliberate, urgent directing invariably drawing the viewer into the heart of the scenes, almost placing them at the centre of the arguments in the boardrooms and courtrooms on screen. Mann has always been a visual stylist, but here he restrains from many of his familiar trademarks, opting instead for many long, hand-held, often amateur-looking takes. But if we look beyond any technical concerns, his chosen style of shooting only adds to the claustrophobic nature of the characters' situations, giving the entire film a documentary-like feel. He allows his camera, and therefore the viewer, to intrude upon, rather than merely record, scenes that often seemed improvised as a result. The performances from the leads only add to the impression that we are witnessing a real drama rather than a movie. As Wigand, the Oscar-nominated Russell Crowe is outstanding, giving his character a nervous vulnerability, while carefully avoiding the cliches of the helpless victim. He also manages to characterise the growing frustration and anger Wigand feels at being trapped and threatened into silence by forces more powerful than he'll ever be. The audience can only sympathise with his plight. While, as the determined and ethical Bergman, Al Pacino is his usual forthright self, wading through a legal and moral minefield to achieve what he believes is right, while berating anyone who stands in the way of him keeping his promise of giving Wigand a public platform from which he could blow his whistle. A film laden with both cinematic and dramatic substance, The Insider proves to be a very rewarding experience for those prepared to endure its two-and-a-half hours running time. Along with co-writer Eric Roth, Michael Mann has crafted a memorable, intense, and great-looking movie, one which is made all the more satisfying by his focusing upon the characters rather than the increasingly complex legal wranglings. Instead of allowing his film to drown under the weight of corporate red tape and boardroom-level corruption, he is sure never to stray too far away from the human centre of his drama, always careful to remind the audience that the characters on screen are as real and as flawed as they