Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 3.0
Style plays substance in a game of two halves. One-all draw.
From the very opening shot, as a blindfolded Al Pacino is raced through the streets of Gaza to meet the leader of the Hezbollah to negotiate an interview with 60 minutes, you know that style is going to be important component of this movie. Before that, even, if you're paying attention, since it's a Michael Man flick (he of Miami Vice and Manhunter).And like Manhunter, style gets the better of content, to the point where the content jackknifes halfway though and the film morphs from a fairly routine Whistleblower expose (like Silkwood) to a Testament to Journalistic Integrity: Russell Crowe's victimised whistleblowing ciggy scientist almost completely disappears from the last forty minutes as Pacino battles with CBS legal and corporate honchos to get the segment aired in the name of truth and justice.Meantime, the style grates - from the elaborate opener in Palestine which, while impressive, is irrelevant to the film except to show off Al's commitment to his profession, to the silly music and the the endless shots of the backs of heads - especially Crowe's, but towards the end of the film, everyone else's as well. Maybe Mann was trying to invoke some imagery with this, but I couldn't figure it out, so it just annoyed me, especially since it highlighted, in Crowe's case, a very poor wig.Crowe did his best to rustle (ha!) up a Kentucky accent, but still was miscast - I don't think the Wigand character was a hollywood hunk. Pacino carried the film and Christopher Plummer's portrayal of Mike Wallace was spot on.While it's undoubtedly an entertaining film, just too much about it was cliched or needlessly modish for it to make a real impression, so I reckon it's destined for the half price hire section in the video store.But cheap at half the price.Olly Buxton