MALICE
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, Bill Pullman. Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin and Scott Frank. Director: Harold Becker. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
It has long been my belief that the best movie mysteries are those after which you can say to yourself, "I should have figured that out." I loathe Joe Eszterhas-style thrillers which make me feel as though I've been had; nothing that can change the "whodunnit" by shooting five new minutes of footage is constructed tightly enough. Almost equally annoying are those which seem to twist and turn just for the sake of twisting and turning, forcing you to engage in a two-hour discussion with your fellow moviegoers just to figure out what the heck you just saw. MALICE avoids all these pitfalls. This is a sharp, artfully-constructed thriller, a snappy entertainment that does everything I ask a film in its genre to do: keep me guessing without manipulating me.
Andy Safien (Bill Pullman) is a student dean at Westerly College, a picturesque New England campus plagued by a string of serial rapes. While following up on the latest assault, Andy meets Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin), a cocky new thoracic surgeon who turns out to be an old high school classmate of Andy's. Andy soon invites Jed to move into the house being remodeled by Andy and his wife Tracy (Nicole Kidman) in an attempt to defray expenses. Tracy is none-too-pleased by Jed's playboy manner, an added burden to the chronic abdominal pain she is experiencing. However, life in the Safien household will soon go from bad to worse. Andy becomes a suspect in the rapes, and Tracy suffers a severe medical emergency, forcing Jed to make a decision which will set in motion a serpentine chain of danger and deceptions.
This is the point where reviewing a film like MALICE gets tricky. Comment on the plot is next to impossible, particularly on those few points where I felt credibility is stretched. All I can really say is that the script by Aaron Sorkin (A FEW GOOD MEN) and Scott Frank (DEAD AGAIN) is intelligent and impressive in its plausible intricacy. There is an ingenious red herring crafted into the story which successfully diverts attention from other key elements. There were moments when I sensed the entire audience realizing the same thing at the same time. I saw very little of that telltale sign of a confusing mystery: people leaning over to friends and spouses to ask what just happened. Every explanation was clear and smooth, if not always perfectly believable.
If there's one problem with the plot-heavy script, it's that certain character developments are shallow. Bill Pullman is very good as the pleasant Everyman with a streak of jealousy, but his character would have benefited from some early evidence to make his later behavior more believable. Ditto Nicole Kidman, who has the most challenging role. I found Bebe Neuwirth basically annoying as a police detective sporting an accent that appeared to be a mutant hybrid of Boston Brahmin and Brooklyn Italian. On the plus side, Anne Bancroft has a showy bit part as a loony mentor a la Robin Williams in DEAD AGAIN (apparently a Scott Frank trademark). Alec Baldwin is perfect as Jed, delivering a great speech about his "God complex" with utter conviction. Baldwin should stick to roles such as this which require colossal displays of hubris.
Director Harold Becker showed his talent for atmospheric suspense in SEA OF LOVE, and surpasses that effort with MALICE. While never spectacularly tense, MALICE is always gripping, thanks to a methodical unfolding of the story with something important happening in almost every scene. Becker even cleverly undercuts genre expectations, particularly in an ominously underscored shot of a big dark house ... on a cliff ... overlooking crashing surf ... during a thunderstorm. The audience was in hysterics. This is a smart, deft directing job, and one that establishes Becker as a name to watch for.
I think I can get away with saying that you shouldn't go into MALICE expecting a scream-out-loud suspense film. It's more subtle than that, but never less than thoroughly intriguing. This is a mystery for mystery lovers.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 plot twists: 8.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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