Review: The Insider
Review by: Joy Wyse, the SILVER Screen Critic
Starring: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, etc.
Director: Michael Mann
There are numerous familiar faces in this movie. The list is goes on and on so part of the enjoyment of the film is noticing who is in which role. The Insider has such an important storyline that a large group of well-known actors wanted to be part of it.
At first you might think that this is the story of how the tobacco industry has successfully kept the smoking public thinking that cigarettes are non-addictive. That's not it. It also is the story of how big business can, and does control the media. But even that is not the true plot line. It's really the story of two men, Lowell Bergman (Pacino) and Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) and the integrity that each man has.
Bergman is a producer on `60 Minutes' who is always on the lookout for a big story. When he convinces someone, anyone, to allow him to cover a story, he promises to protect the person, and he means it.
Wigand is a former executive research officer at Brown & Williamson who knows that they actually add substances to insure addiction. When they fire him he must agree to a confidentiality contract prohibiting him from telling what he knows. In return, B & W bestows upon him a good severance program including much needed insurance that will insure his daughter's asthma treatments.
When a movie is based on fact, as this one is, the producers cannot take liberties with actual events. People cannot be portrayed as acting in a way other than what they truly did. So, when they show Wigand's wife, Liane, (portrayed by Diane Venora) crumbling under the outside pressures, you get a good look at how difficult their lives became.
As we were leaving the screening almost everyone said that same thing: It is a good movie, but longer than it should be. I can't think of any scene that should be omitted, but they could have edited out a lot of the lingering moments.
Every actor in the film is terrific. There is already talk that Plummer will probably be nominated for best supporting actor. We'll see. Personally, I loved Russell Crowe and I'm glad to see him coming into his own. I liked him so much in `Mystery Alaska'. This is a very different role for him.
I give the film an A. I don't know how it got an `R' rating. The only objectionable thing I remember was a single use of F---!
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