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From the inside out
by CarlosC (movies profile)
May 19, 2008
5
of
6 people found this review helpful
In the high stakes chess of big tobacco, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) is quite THE INSIDER. As former head of research for Brown & Williamson, one of the big tobacco firms, Wigand knows something the rest of the world doesn't. Wigand knows that -- contrary to the joint sworn testimony of the major tobacco company CEOs -- the cigarette industry knows that its product is addictive. One senses that Wigand is anxious to be rid of his burden. When he meets an engrossing CBS News producer named Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), the days of Wigand's secret are numbered.
Bergman is an INSIDER, also. He leads a life the rest of us can only marvel at. As the movie begins, Bergman is led, blindfolded, through the winding streets of Tehran to arrange an interview for Mike Wallace. Bergman calls well-placed friends at the Wall Street Journal to hold up stories; he calls the FBI to arrange "security" for his sources. When the two INSIDERs meet, the conflict is minimal: Wigand wants to tell his story, and Bergman wants to give him a megaphone. But their corporate masters -- namely, B&W and CBS -- put up formidable barriers.
In the movie's central action, "60 Minutes" tapes, and then sits on, a bombshell interview with Wigand. The piece is canned, ostensibly, for legal reasons: Wigand signed two confidentiality agreements with B&W that make the interview unlawful. But, Bergman (Pacino) suspects -- as the rest of the world did at the time -- that CBS hesitates because Westinghouse is about to buy the network. A looming multi-billion dollar lawsuit from big tobacco would make the corporation less attractive to its suitor. Some of the people in the news division -- and, in "60 Minutes" -- are also shareholders: They have an ulterior motive to want the Wigand story shelved indefinitely -- to protect their portfolios.
The movie makes the viewer an INSIDER, also. If you ever wondered what it's like to have lunch with Mike Wallace, here's your big chance. Wallace is portrayed deftly by Christopher Plummer, who has aged gracefully since THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965). The real Mike Wallace griped that the film portrays him as "a soulless and cowardly laggard who has lost his moral compass." This is true. But, if the shoe fits... (Wallace declines a protest resignation because he cannot fathom working in "the wilderness of National Public Radio.")
Pacino is superb, of course. But, he is such a known quantity that we have heard all the notes and tones that he pipes, here. The act to watch is Crowe's Wigand, nuanced to a low simmer. The cinematography is somewhat pretentious. But, the overall effect is a wallop.
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