**Conspiracy Theory** Reviewed by Jeff Walters
When I entered the theatre I was expecting a fairly light mystery type movie, and came away pleasantly surprised and somewhat dissappointed at the same time. The film opens with an extremely amusing sequence which sees Gibson's character (paranoid cabby Jerry Fletcher) trying to convince various fares of several different conspiracies. Jerry is just a treat to watch, especially in the first hour, where he manages to be funny and touching in the same scenes.
Jerry's manic behaviour is countered nicely by Julia Roberts' portrayal of a caring Justice Department official, Alice Sutton, and it is through her eyes that you experience most of the movie. Several of the key scenes involving Jerry and Alice are genuinely touching, like in Jerry's apartment where he gives his explanation for owning so many copies of "Catcher in the Rye". There is no doubt that this film's strength lies in the interaction between Mel and Julia. The pair just have terrific on-screen chemistry.
Conspiracy Theory takes a dramatic change of direction not too long into the film, with a fairly confronting torture scene that really surprised me and many others around me, especially after the light-hearted introduction. Don't get me wrong though, the scene is terrific and Gibson does a brilliant job conveying the outright terror the character is experiencing.
I feel though that the 'conspiracy' storyline was disappointing and bungled to a certain degree. What started out as an intruiging premise (i.e. One of his theories is correct - But which one?) peters out and when the conspiracy is revealed, it is after no real deductive work at all by the main characters. Also, Conspiracy Theory's main villan, Dr Jonas (Patrick Stewart), is not explored as much as you'd probably like, but Stewart does a terrific job with what he was given and was well cast. I'd never have picked him as a villan before, but he's very cold and convincing.
Overall, I'd say this is a film well worth seeing. The acting was simply terrific and the movie was filled with genuine humour, not lame Batman & Robin one liners. If it wasn't for the fairly weak 'conspiracy' storyline - this would have been a big hit. Many people have said that this film was simply too long, but I didn't seem to notice any problem there. Anyway, go and see it, if for no other reason than to listen to Jerry's off-the-wall conspiracy ideas or to take a look at his apartment........he's got a combination lock on the fridge and he stores his coffee in a padlocked container.
3 1/2 stars out of 5
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