Crowe revelation

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2015)

Intrepid '60 Minutes' producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) gets Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) an interview with Hezbollah. He wants to do a story about cigarettes accidentally setting fires and receives a stack of technical documents. He seeks out Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) to translate the jargon. Wigand just got fired from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company. His daughter suffers and he needs the medical coverage in his severance package. The company is playing hardball with his confidentiality agreement. The pressure is overwhelming and from all sides.
This is a terrific Michael Mann movie. The story doesn't have natural kinetic energy. However he creates such tension from the story. Al Pacino gives his usual power acting. Russell Crowe is a revelation as a haggard middle-aged family man. The subject matter could easily drown in white collar gobbergoob talk. However Mann makes it a great character study and an energized thriller.