A Good Film That Could Have Been Great

Rating: Null/10 (25 June 2000)

This film deals with Brown & Williamson whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand (played to the hilt by Russell Crowe in an Oscar-nominated role) and his interview with "60 Minutes" that almost destroyed his life. Al Pacino plays producer Lowell Bergman and Christopher Plummer steals every scene as Mike Wallace. The film is complicated in some spots and very slow-moving in other areas. It's a bit too long, running about 2 hours and 35 minutes, but the material is intriguing nonetheless. Writer-producer-director Michael Mann keeps the suspense up throughout, even though you know what is going to happen in the end. His directing style is very similar to Ron Howard's in "Apollo 13". This film is very well-made, but is flawed in many respects. It received seven Oscar nominations in 1999, it won none. 4 out of 5 stars.