Conspiracy Theory A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1997 Michael Redman
*** (out of ****)
Fluoride in the water is a secret government conspiracy to weaken our minds. NASA attempted to assassinate the president with an earthquake. The Grateful Dead were actually engaged in clandestine covert operations. Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone. Jack Ruby didn't kill Oswald because Ruby wasn't the gunman and the victim wasn't Oswald in the first place. The Vietnam War wasn't really fought to save the world from the evil empire of communism.
Believe any of these? Meet Jerry Fletcher, New York cabbie and self-styled conspiracy expert. He believes them all - and hundreds more. And he's out to convince everyone else. Sitting in the back seat of his hack is an exercise in endurance as his mouth runs faster than the vehicle.
Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is living proof that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that "They" aren't out to get you. Shortly after he mails the latest issue of his conspiracy newsletter to all of the five subscribers, four of them end up dead and he is kidnapped and tortured in an abandoned lab. He must have stumbled onto a true one, but he can't figure out which.
Turning to the only person he trusts, Justice Department investigator Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts), he entices her to help him. What she doesn't know is that Fletcher has been secretly in love with her since he saved the agent from a mugging and sits outside her apartment at night watching her jogging on a treadmill.
Pairing Roberts and Gibson is a natural. The attractive but daffy victim and the brave levelheaded savior is a tried-and-true film formula. The difference here is that Gibson is the ditz. It's difficult to tel when he is dazed and confused from the drugs injected by his interrogators and his natural mania.
Half way through the film, the plot takes a left-hand turn and an unlikely conspiracy that Fletcher never saw coming reveals itself. This new information explains…well, not everything, but a lot. It also completely changes the direction of the movie.
Gibson takes his crazed "Lethal Weapon" (also directed by this film's Richard Donner) character and amps him into over-drive. Although uncomfortable to watch at times in the same way that being trapped in real life by a motor mouth who wants to tell you all about it is, his performance is compelling.
Roberts is much more interesting in this type of role than the "Pretty Woman"esque parts she is popular for. Her character is only a bit more grounded in reality than Gibson's. For an experienced Federal Agent, she is remarkably naive, believing outrageous lies by the bad guys and making huge leaps of faith. Sutton isn't very realistic, but then neither are the governmental cover-ups in our world.
Patrick Stewart as Dr. Jonas, the ultra-mysterious spook, is surprisingly able to shed his Captain Piccard image, not an easy task when his voice instantly brings the "Star Trek" bridge to mind. Jonas is not one of the good guys and heads a faction of the intelligence community devoted to...something that's not very nice.
The film rambles at times, but it does so at breakneck speed and intersperses important developments with the inanity. You need to pay attention to follow the story. There are problems, but they don't get in the way of the fun. The ending is too "feel good" however sure to delight audiences. Very little is realistic, but name a Mel Gibson film that is.
You may not walk away believing all of Jerry Fletcher's ideas, but you will probably have a suspicion that all is not as it appears. I think you'd probably be right.
(The Michael Redman who wrote this column is the same one who began writing them over 21 years ago. Or is he? Even he's not too sure. Email to mredman@bvoice.com _might_ reach him - or someone.)
[This appeared in the 8/14/97 "Bloominton Voice". Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:mredman@bvoice.com
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