Absolutely Absurd
"Absolute Power"
Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Castle Rock Pictures, rel. 2-14-97
New to video in July
In "Absolute Power", the latest entry into the ever-expanding genre of White House scandal movies, Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman reteam in an attempt to duplicate the success of their Oscar-winning masterpiece, "Unforgiven". While it is likely that no effort could recapture the critical and commercial praise of the first, the failure of "Absolute Power" largely reflects upon the paths their respective careers have taken since their first teaming. Eastwood, while remaining one of Hollywood's true giants, built upon his introspective performance in "Unforgiven" with "The Bridges of Madison County", another sensitive, mature picture which won critical raves as well as an Oscar nomination for his costar, Meryl Streep. Hackman, meanwhile, has moved away from the types of roles which made him famous as well. However, his bad-guy-with-ideology roles in such underwhelming productions as "Extreme Measures" and "The Chamber" have evinced no sign of a maturing performer; rather, they seem more stale each time out. These two patterns come together in "Absolute Power" with unspectacular results. Eastwood plays Luther Whitney, and aging, recently-out-of-jail burglar who has resumed his criminal activities. Since he's played by Eastwood, it goes without saying that Luther is the very best recently-out-of-jail burglar in the business. In the midst of robbing the mansion of a wealthy political insider, he is interrupted by the unexpected entrance of a couple - whom we immediately recognize as Hackman and an unknown female acquaintance - returning from a late-night rendezvous. When the flirtation turns violent, the woman pulls a knife. At this point, two men break into the room and save the drunken, battered Hackman. Only then does Luther, and we the audience, realize that the two men are Secret Service agents, the woman is the wife of the insider, and Hackman is (surprise!) the President of the United States. When the Chief of Staff (a flustered Judy Davis) shows up, predictable, the coverup goes into motion. When the conspirators leave behind the bloody knife ( a relatively important piece of evidence, one would think) Luther grabs it and escapes. Predictably, Da visrealizes the mistake, finds out about Luther, and decides to pin the murder on him. Thus we have "Absolute Power"'s biggest problem: its highly implausible, often ridiculous plot. And it doesn't stop there. Eastwood is hereafter hounded by lonely D.C. homicide cop Ed Harris (whose earnest performance lends the film a much-needed jolt of credibility), who naturally suspects the involvement of the ex-convict. Rather than flee the country, Eastwood decides to stay in Washington and expose the coverup, unfazed by the idea of taking on the most powerful man in the world. Sure. Eastwood does everything we would expect him to do, and does it well. He gets angry, scowls, furrows his brow, jokes about his age, protects his estranged daughter (Laura Linney) and eludes both the cops and the Secret Service. In Hackman's defense, his slimy-President character really doesn't have all that much to do, as the overwrought plot and overabundance of name actors cut his scenes and lines to the bare minimum. The real bad guys here are Davis in her silly Hillary Clinton-meets-Al Haig caricature, and the Secret Servicemen, played by Scott Glenn and Dennis Haysbert. Glenn, deserving of more on-screen time as usual (see "Courage Under Fire", "Silverado", etc.) plays the one with the conscience. Haysbert's character, all deep voice and sneer, is so ridiculously, cold-bloodedly evil that it stretches the imagination to think that this man would be charged with protecting the President of the U.S. Eastwood's air-tight direction and his and Harris' solid performances give you the feeling that this movie is better than it really is, but in the end, it's a mishmash of too many characters and too many plot-necessitated leaps of faith spoiling the already-iffy soup.
Stars: B/B+ Story: D Script: C
Overall: C
Copyright 1997
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