ViewGuide

Created Dec 30, 2007 03:45AM PST • Edited May 25, 2015 09:43PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   After long avoiding this movie, I was compelled to watch it by Massie’s simple declaration of its perfection. He’s right, this is a perfect movie, long yet packed with necessary detail, suspenseful even though the end is never in doubt, chock full of charismatic performances by three of our greatest stars and a bevy of memorable supporting players.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Monumental acting by Pacino, Crowe and Plummer, backed up by well over half a dozen scene stealing co-stars.

   Pacino anchors the movie in a measured performance as good as any he’s done. His toe-to-toe scenes with each Crowe and Plummer are supernovas of movie acting.

   Crowe – who I’ve long resisted giving his due – deftly shrinks his physical presence into the organization man role he plays here. His ability to play both cerebral and physical characters marks him as a true A list movie star.

   Plummer – forever imprinted in my baby boomer mind as Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music – disappears into the role of Mike Wallace, a man familiar as family to American TV watchers. Tremendous performance, especially when the lion in him rises up to denounce Gina Gershon’s corporatist lawyer.

   Speaking of towering deliveries, Bruce McGill’s powerful rejoinder to a tobacco attorney’s objection stands up there with the all time great courtroom speeches.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

   Debi Mazar and Gina Gershon – two of my favorite actresses – deliver relatively understated yet note perfect performances.

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    Michael Mann just doesn’t make poor productions: everything he touches on TV and the Silver Screen ranges from Good to Great to Perfect.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Perfect 5.0

    The script runs rife with pithy declarations and exchanges, making this long movie compelling to the end.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    Remember Wick’s Hollywood Reality Equation: ‘Based on a true story’ is Hollywoodspeak for ‘Bring on the dancing girls.’ No pom poms here, but entertainment remains the filmmaker’s first priority, with good guys worth cheering and bad guys worth hissing as the core element.

    Dickie Scruggs – one of the white hats in this movie – is now under real life indictment for attempting to bribe a judge in a corporate tort case similar to the one in “The Insider.” He’s innocent till proven guilty, but it is unlikely that he’ll get to write the history of his latest exploit as he did in his tangle with Big Tobacco.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

    This fascinating depiction of big time TV journalism as practiced at the long-time summit of the profession seems real. I’m saying it is 150% of reality more because of the necessary plot contrivances employed in every dramatic movie.

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0