Movies You Ought To See: Absence of Malice
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15:10 GMT on 24 August 2003
Absence of Malice is one casting decision away from being great. It's generally unremembered, coming in a bit of a slump in director Sydney Pollack's career (does anybody outside of Hollywood enjoy The Electric Horseman?), but it is, for the most part, a deeply satisfying drama about corrupt bureaucracy and unprincipled media.
The movie begins with a Miami newspaper deciding to profile Mike Gallagher (Paul Newman), owner of Gallagher Imports and, more importantly, son of a deceased mob figure who may or may not have been involved in a recent disappearance. Reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) is assigned by her editor to find out why the government seems suddenly interested in him.
While interviewing the head of the Justice Department "Strike Force," Elliot Rosen (Bob Balaban!), Rosen "accidentally" leaves a confidential file on Gallagher in her view and leaves her alone with it, manipulating her into taking it. Being a reporter, and one looking to increase her status in the newsroom, she takes it, and builds her report around it.
She runs the article by her editor, who approves it pending approval from the legal department. A lawyer, Davidek (played with an amusing lack of irony by John Harkins), peruses the article, then asks if each figure named was called for comment and rebuttal. Gallagher couldn't be reached, but Davidek declares that a "good faith" effort was made, thus showing the newspaper to be "absent malice," so the story can be published.
The day it's published, Megan is sitting at her desk in the newsroom when a man walks up to her and says, quietly, "I'm Mike Gallagher." She spills her coffee.
That's right, Paul Newman doesn't show up until 30 minutes into the movie.
Gallagher is understandably unhappy at what was written, and wants to know how it got printed without any say from him. He's less than satisfied with the absence of malice argument, but begins getting to know Megan and letting her get to know him, while the "Strike Force" investigation continues in the background.
Gallagher is suspected of being involved in the disappearance of a union leader, and was mysteriously absent during the critical time period. Megan learns why, eventually, and publishes the facts in an attempt to atone for her earlier mistake.
Which only causes more harm.
At this point, Gallagher begins a scheme that manipulates everyone into doing things that, after a time, bring in Assistant U.S. Attorney General James A. Wells (Wilford Brimley). Wells collects all the major players in one big conference room, and announces:
Now we'll talk all day if you want to. But, come sundown, there's gonna be two things true that ain't true now. One is that the United States Department of Justice is goin' to know what in the good Christ — 'scuse me, Angie — is goin' on around here. And the other's I'm gonna have somebody's ass in my briefcase.
You've just got to love Wilford Brimley. Especially when he kicks names and takes asses.
The film is directed by Sydney Pollack, back when he was still a damn good director. It came after Three Days of the Condor and just before Tootsie and the magnificent Out of Africa. Pollack's style is evident here: crisp, clean, professional, with little or nothing in the way of directorial fireworks.
The Oscar-nominated script was by first-time screenwriter Kurt Luedtke (with an uncredited polish by frequent Pollack collaborater David Rayfiel). Luedtke wrote from experience, one suspects, since he was an editor at the Detroit Free Press in the 1970s, around the time of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance in the Detroit area. Luedtke went on to co-script Out of Africa, and then the unfortunate Random Hearts, which at least was a good idea for a movie, if not actually a good movie.,
The cast is spectacular. Paul Newman, of course, is great, but his approach here is not that of a star. He acts like someone who grew up in a rough neighborhood and is naturally shy.
Bob Balaban, one of my favorite character actors, is brilliant as the slimy Elliot Rosen. You may recognize him from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Francois Truffaut's translator), Waiting for Guffman (the music director), or Gosford Park (the American movie producer).
Wilford Brimley is in one scene, and he owns it, as I've indicated.
There is, however, one false note. Sally Field. Now, in full disclosure, Field is another one of those actors and actresses whom I simply do not like, in company with Katharine Hepburn, Karl Malden, and Reese Witherspoon, among others. She's never anybody but Sally Field to me, and I find Sally Field more irritating than interesting, I'm afraid. Her performance here is, admittedly, one of her better efforts. But it is still distressingly limited in emotional range, and she seems lost among all of these excellent actors.
(In a sense, that really works to the movie's advantage, as she gets manipulated so much throughout. However, there is no apparent change at the end, when there should be.)
Apart from that flaw, though, this movie is thoroughly worth viewing and considering. The way that the media and bureaucracy manipulate each other and individuals, and use private citizens as pawns in a larger game, is only too true. The excuses that both hide behind to justify their lack of responsibility also rings true, if a bit simplistic in this post Clinton Administration world.
And for once, a movie's tagline was entirely accurate: "Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline... And everything they said was accurate... But none of it was true."
That's the theme in a nutshell.
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