An awfully well made film

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2002)

Excellent casting and distinctive directing. Amazing appearances by Christopher Plummer, Colm Feore, Michael Gambon and Gina Gershon. You wouldn't think music by Lisa Gerrard, Michael Mann's outrageous colors and Russell Crowe playing a man several decades older than he is would work together, but they do. The story itself is not done as much justice as Bergman's Frontline piece gave it, but a lot of the important info is there. Wigand did a brave thing and the drama of the movie comes from his agonizing over why he did it, if it was worth it and how did he find the will to go through with it. Crowe's Wigand is a much more interesting accomplishment than Spacey's detached smartass in American Beauty.

The extreme close-ups of peoples' faces got really old really fast though.