Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
.
Engaging and well-performed: Russell Crowe does an exceptionally good job of portraying an ordinary man under extroardinary pressure (incidentally, I think that's a line from the movie itself.) Worth watching for the subtle brilliance of his performance alone. Plumber is equally remarkable as Mike Wallace. Al Pacino is ... well ... Al Pacino, but ... that's always fun to see, and his intensity keeps the film compelling and taut. The peculiar soundtrack, pieced together and composed by, I believe, a Dead Can Dance member, adds a nice, mildly surreal/ethereal undercurrent to the events, although at times it is a bit too much. There's a very subtle sort of ... new-age, flittering acoustic guitar refrain ... which is used brilliantly -- and is that actually Einsturzende Neubauten playing at one point? I could swear it was. However, the choral stuff gets a touch overbearing here and there.It isn't quite a masterpiece -- did we really need the "guys like you are in short supply in this world" exchange between Pacino and Crowe? I prefer not to be instructed what to think of the characters and their circumstances, and you have to imagine an exchange like that was added for dramatic effect. There are a few little details like this that I could've done without. It's a fairly minor complaint however, and the Insider was, on the whole, well worth the time.