Some situations are much easier to dramatize than others.
In an episode of "ER" for example, it's easy to show the consequences of giving a patient the wrong medication. Likewise, in a comedy like "Runaway Bride" or "Moonstruck," a director can let us see the chaos that erupts as the heroine chooses true love over responsibility.
It's considerably trickier to convey to an audience the consequences of what happens when crucial information is withheld from the public due to legal maneuvering or corporate cover-ups. That's precisely the problem director Michael Mann struggles with in "The Insider," an intensely detail-oriented drama about the manipulation of the news that will strike a resonant chord with many people in journalism or TV production.
Based on a Vanity Fair profile of Jeffrey Wigand, a former research and development director for cigarette manufacturer Brown & Williamson who exposed the hypocracy within the tobacco industry, this is a film almost certain to receive plenty of coverage in the media.
The attention would not be undeserved. It's a well-written, masterfully acted piece of work with many thought-provoking points to make about what happens when we let outside interests determine what is and is not news. From the average moviegoer, however, the response is likely to be a loud "ho hum."
In tackling a challenging subject, Mann has presented his story in a jarringly uncinematic fashion. In fact, often while watching the movie, you may find yourself thinking this material might have been easier to present in a play since so much of it revolves around tense dialogues and silent soul-searching. The immediacy of live performance might have helped immeasurably in putting across "The Insider"'s agenda to the masses.
Instead, Mann tries to create that intimacy through near-continuous use of extreme close-ups. We're constantly being thrust into the heavily lined eyes of Wigand (whose inner torments are marvelously brought to the surface by Russell Crowe) and "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), who's determined to hack through the jungle of gag orders and confidentiality agreements that stands between Wigand and "60 Minutes" reporter Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer). The in-your-face technique is initially gripping -- particularly in an early scene involving an asthma attack -- but before long we start to feel queasily voyeuristic and that discomfort distracts from the drama.
At the same time, for the patient viewer, "The Insider" is packed with fascinating bits and pieces about how the news world operates and the various pressures that come to bear on the people who determine what gets on the air.
The screenplay convincingly tracks Wigand's journey from semi-hostile witness to whistle-blower and goes to great pains to show how much time and energy Bergman put into winning Wigand's trust. Mann also goes behind the scenes at "60 Minutes" to find out about the off-camera politics and the shifting alliances of the reporters and staff. Wallace is portrayed as a mercurial type who knows his best days are behind him and is consumed by the idea of his legacy. He doesn't want to retire in disgrace -- "I don't plan on spending the rest of my days wandering in the wilderness of National Public Radio," he notes -- so he's cautious about throwing his weight behind Bergman when the going gets rocky.
"The Insider" also offers a remarkably restrained and effective performance by Pacino, who Mann obviously kept on a short leash. There's very little of the showboating that's marked (many would say "marred") most of his post-"Scent of a Woman" films.
In the final analysis, though, it's hard to say if Mann has truly succeeded in getting his message to the masses. There's plenty of quality here to be sure, and no one's likely to find fault with any of the acting.
But the ethical issues Mann raises remind me of the reaction of a seemingly sophisticated woman I overheard at a screening of "Broadcast News" 12 years ago. In that movie, TV news producer Holly Hunter is attracted to anchorman William Hurt, but steers clear of him after learning he faked the tears he seemed to cry during an interview with a rape victim. Hunter's character was so devoted to the idea of truth in journalism she couldn't comprehend that a reporter fail to see what was wrong in staging the news or spicing up a story with crocodile tears.
The viewer, on the other hand, complained she didn't understand why Hunter and Hurt didn't end up together in the end. "So he made a mistake -- big deal," she scoffed, and her friends, all of them well-dressed and well-spoken, agreed with her. Those women probably won't get the point of "The Insider" either, and, sadly, they're a large part of the audience Mann is trying to reach. James Sanford
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