CONSPIRACY THEORY (1997) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Richard Donner Writer: Brian Helgeland Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Patrick Stewart, Cylk Cozart
"Conspiracy Theory" is basically two films - one which is totally brilliant and fun to watch; the other, with the same characters from the first one, a typical Hollywood thriller where the two co-ed leads fall in "love" and there is peace in Hollywoodland. "Conspiracy Theory" starts off like a indie film with a big budget and A-List stars, then tweaks off into cliche-land and turns into a confused (not confusing) thriller. And I'm stuck here with a giant dilemna because I enjoyed it all. Ugh.
The thing that's great about this film is the lead character - Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) - a total paranoiac who is very off-kilter. He's a New York cab driver in the tradition of Travis Bickle who rants and raves to all his passengers about his totally paranoid theories (i.e. the Vietnam War was fought over a bet that Arisotle Onassis lost to Walter Mondale; and Oliver Stone is a government-hired filmmaker who tells lies, because if he was right, he'd be dead by now) and is totally obsessed with a Justice department woman, Alice (Julia Roberts). The first half hour serves as a character introduction, as we see his totally bizarre apartment which has locks on everything (even the tapioca pudding) and is rigged to ignite if ever penetrated by "them" (or "they").
He annoys Alice constantly by going to her office and telling her strane conspiracy theories out of his "Conspiracy Theory" newsletter, which has a total of 5 subscribers. But it soon turns out that he may be right because he is soon caught and tortured in a "1984" and "A Clockwork Orange"-esque scene, done by a government psychiatrist, Dr. Jonas (Patrick Stewart, resembling Laurence Olivier in "Marathon Man"). What I think should have developed is a paranoid character study to see if its really all cerebral, kind of what some people have said with "Hamlet": it might just all be in his head. What happens is good, just not as great as that idea would have been.
Anyway, what results...the film continues to be really good for a while, but as it gets into the third act of the film, it begins to sag, become confused (again, not confusing), and just fall apart. In this lovely act, you'll see some not-so-clever plot twists, a couple pretty good action sequences (nothing special), and of course, the "obligatory" love interest betwixt Mr. Gibson and Miss Roberts grow. The latter, of course, is only there because the schmucks behind this film said something along the lines of "Hey, we have Mel and Julia - the audience will WANT them to fall in love." What they have at the beginning and what develops into the second act is what works with the rest of the film. Time to not pander to audiences and just do what works for the film, which is what it is, ok, shmuckboys?
"Conspiracy Theory" kind of turned me off in the last act. Too many chases, too little interest, and what seemed to be a rather loss of identity to what it was in the first two acts. The whole Dr. Jonas thing starts off as a rather ingenius idea, but then gradually detoriates into just some loner cliched villain. Alice, who was kinda shallow and all, yet somehow interesting and intriguing, turns into just some biting-lip chick who will do anything for her man. And, of course, that love thing. The ending doesn't really work really, because the filmmakers are just pandering to their perception of the stupid american public.
However, the first two acts are so good and set up such an interesting premise and fascinating characters (okay, two of them, really) that the third act doesn't even matter. Yes, it doesn't work, but it's still very entertaining. The Jerry Fletcher character is so intriguing, so carefully constructed, that it's a pity to learn about his origin (doesn't work again). He rants and rambles about all sorts of hilarious conspiracy theories (most which make a whole lot of sense, especially one about the Grateful Dead), and is so unbelievably funny that it makes it one hell of a ride just watching this guy go through his daily moves. The film is at its high pinacle when he's just hanging around his apartment or driving in his taxi. It's also so hilariously written and executed, so that even if it's not totally suspenseful, at least you'll get a ton of good laughs out of it. Personally, I was laughing consistently throughout the film (most of them really in the first act).
The third act brings it down so much that it's not the brilliant film it really should be. I would have loved to seen a film where everything's anti-government, proving he may be right yet having us question him. But there's no doubt for us that Jerry was tortured by the government, thus causing us to just sit back and watch it on auto-pilot. But the film has so much else going on, that it somehow works out being fun and entertaining, despite its numerous faults.
Anyway, the bottom line is Mel Gibson should get an Oscar nomination for his brilliant portrayal of this complex character (his second most complex, behind Hamlet, of course), and this film really could have been a masterpiece. But hell, someone could always make it again and make it right. For now, this will do nicely.
MY RATING (out of 5): ***
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