Nothing to lose

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2002)

The Insider is what I like to call a "political thriller". This is overall a great movie about the topic with perfect characters, good direction, and an entertaining screenplay.
Jeff Wingand (Russell Crowe) plays a paranoid research scientist who has just lost his job at a major tobacco company. Jeff soon loses his wife's trust in him and is on the verge of losing his family if he can't pay the bills and give his family dental care and health care which they need. Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) is a news reporter from the show 60 Minutes who travels all around the world to get stories from some of the most dangerous people, he is willing to do absolutely anything to get the complete story. When Lowell calls Jeff up and asks him if he can go over a simple report on flame resistances that involve cigarette burns, Lowell gets more than he bargained for. Jeff secretly hints that he knows a lot about the tobacco companies, so much he could bring them down himself if he had a chance in court. Lowell wants Jeff's full story at any costs because it would be the story of the year. Jeff has signed a waver though with his former company that he can not release any research information to the public or else they can financially hurt him or physically hurt him by any means nesscarry.
The Insider starts out with a sample of Lowell's work as he travels to an Arabic country to get a report from an alleged terrorist leader, this is obviously very interesting to today's crowd. Russell Crowe plays his part perfectly as the paranoid scientist in that the way he talks, acts, and moves. Russell's character is always worried that his former tobacco company is going to hurt him and his family, and every instance he gets a hint of it he acts immediately in strange ways which are very interesting to watch. Al Pacino masters his role, just as he does for all his roles, there are no flaws in the acting in this movie. However the movie does exceed the three hour mark and tends to run a little slow near the end, but you'll be dying to see the conclusion because of all the hype about the release of the story during the movie.
Michael Mann's movies are always fun to watch and this is no exception, this is his best work since Heat with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Rent this movie or buy it, it's that good, you won't be disappointed.