One of the most overrated movies of 1999

Rating: Null/10 (10 April 2000)

Am I the only one seeing that this movie is totally overrated? The beginning of the (already too long) movie, meaning the first hour is just utterly boring and uninteresting. The movies starts somewhere in Northern Israel of the South of Lebanon (I am not quite sure) and when I went seeing it I had no idea what it was about. So I thought it was about the PLO or the Palestinian-Israeli issue but the first part of the movie was completely unnecessary. Okay one might state that it was meant to show what the profession of Bergmann is about and like but that could have been accomplished in other ways than sending an expensive crew to such a country.
And the first hour there's nothing happening. The meant-to-be-artistic slow motion shots are annoying and not functional at all. Main character Wigand is played by a good actor, but the story is a complete flunk. It can by summarized as 'guy shouldn't talk, guy does, guy is sadly left by wife and children'. I can hardly keep my eyes dry.. what drama!
And I was even more surprised to see that Pacino is the center of the second part of the movie. The screenplay doesn't divide its attention evenly at all. All of a sudden the movie changes color by putting all attention to Pacino and his problems to get the bloody interview aired.
Christopher Plummer is good though.. but there are to many gaps in the screenplay to let him save the movie...
And it could have been such a good movie... too bad...
Mann was trying to combine personal drama (Wigand), professional drama (Bergmann) and a cheap John Grisham court-drama.
It's too long to keep the viewer's attention... hello people? where is the so-called haunting suspence?
6 out of 10 points.