Spoilers for a Bad Movie
The next time I jump all over someone for liking that piece of garbage that J.J. Abrams has the nerve to call Star Trek, all that person has to do is say one word to put me in my rightful place: Malice. Malice, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about (and considering it's failure at the box office, most of you probably won't), is a psychological thriller that is probably the only movie I've ever seen with more plot holes than Abrams's Star Trek. A lot more.
It's more or less impossible to describe the plot without giving important twists away, so I will now give important twists away. Bill Pullman and Nicole Kidman star as Andy and Tracy Safian, a happily married couple who have recently purchased a house they can't quite afford, and so they rent out the spare room to a man who turns out to be a lot more than meets the eye.
This set-up is exactly -- and I do mean exactly -- the same as the set-up found in the beginning of Pacific Heights, a psychological thriller which is inarguably more intelligent and yet, in my own humble opinion, less entertaining.
In Pacific Heights, the mystery man is a complete stranger who, for reasons that are never explained, sets out to ruin the lives of his landlords, in a very methodical manner. In Malice, the mystery man is Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin), the new wonderboy at the local hospital. Andy and Jed have a chance encounter, and Andy remembers Jed as his high school's football hero. Jed doesn't remember Andy, but this time they hit it off and become instant buddies, prompting Andy's invitation to become his new tenant. Tracy takes an instant -- and inexplicable -- disliking towards Jed, but tolerates him anyway.
To make a long story short, Tracy ends up on Jed's operating table after Jed's been out drinking all night, and Jed botches the operation; Tracy survives, but is no longer able to have children. Tracy blames Jed for the miscall and Andy for "giving him permission." Now the movie is no longer about the dynamic between Andy, Jed, and Tracy, but about the legal battle between Jed and Tracy. Meanwhile, Andy, now separated from Tracy, starts discovering a few things that don't add up. To make a long story -- oh, I already tried that and failed -- well, to make a long story not quite as long, Andy eventually discovers that Jed and Tracy were actually in cahoots, pulling a complicated scam on Andy himself (not to mention Jed's medical malpractice insurance company).
And that's where the whole thing just falls completely apart, without any semblance of logic whatsoever. The scam seems to depend partially on coincidence (Andy and Jed really do seem to meet by happenstance) and mostly on a couple of enormous sacrifices by the con artists: Jed has to lose his medical license, which he seems to value above all else, and Tracy, even less realistically, has to romance and wed a man she doesn't really love or respect, and then endure a major surgery to set the malpractice suit into motion. This part can't even be faked, since Jed is assisted by other doctors during the procedure. And if it's all a scam, why does Tracy bother faking all of those abdominal pains when no one is around? To fool the viewer, sure, but not for any reason that makes sense in character.
As I said, these plot holes are simply huge, too numerous and too obvious to ignore. And yet I still like the movie. Why? Maybe it's Harold Becker's moody atmosphere, or Josef Sommer's understated performance as Jed's attorney, or George C. Scott's powerful cameo, or the brilliant Aaron Sorkin monologue that Baldwin delivers at a crucial moment. I like how the main plot involving the scam and the subplot involving a serial killer turn out to be, not connected, exactly, but consequential to each other. I like the nice character touch that you only gradually learn that Andy is friends with the detective investigating the serial killer. I like a lot of things about this flick. But I can't realistically call it a good movie. I enjoyed it anyway.
It's more or less impossible to describe the plot without giving important twists away, so I will now give important twists away. Bill Pullman and Nicole Kidman star as Andy and Tracy Safian, a happily married couple who have recently purchased a house they can't quite afford, and so they rent out the spare room to a man who turns out to be a lot more than meets the eye.
This set-up is exactly -- and I do mean exactly -- the same as the set-up found in the beginning of Pacific Heights, a psychological thriller which is inarguably more intelligent and yet, in my own humble opinion, less entertaining.
In Pacific Heights, the mystery man is a complete stranger who, for reasons that are never explained, sets out to ruin the lives of his landlords, in a very methodical manner. In Malice, the mystery man is Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin), the new wonderboy at the local hospital. Andy and Jed have a chance encounter, and Andy remembers Jed as his high school's football hero. Jed doesn't remember Andy, but this time they hit it off and become instant buddies, prompting Andy's invitation to become his new tenant. Tracy takes an instant -- and inexplicable -- disliking towards Jed, but tolerates him anyway.
To make a long story short, Tracy ends up on Jed's operating table after Jed's been out drinking all night, and Jed botches the operation; Tracy survives, but is no longer able to have children. Tracy blames Jed for the miscall and Andy for "giving him permission." Now the movie is no longer about the dynamic between Andy, Jed, and Tracy, but about the legal battle between Jed and Tracy. Meanwhile, Andy, now separated from Tracy, starts discovering a few things that don't add up. To make a long story -- oh, I already tried that and failed -- well, to make a long story not quite as long, Andy eventually discovers that Jed and Tracy were actually in cahoots, pulling a complicated scam on Andy himself (not to mention Jed's medical malpractice insurance company).
And that's where the whole thing just falls completely apart, without any semblance of logic whatsoever. The scam seems to depend partially on coincidence (Andy and Jed really do seem to meet by happenstance) and mostly on a couple of enormous sacrifices by the con artists: Jed has to lose his medical license, which he seems to value above all else, and Tracy, even less realistically, has to romance and wed a man she doesn't really love or respect, and then endure a major surgery to set the malpractice suit into motion. This part can't even be faked, since Jed is assisted by other doctors during the procedure. And if it's all a scam, why does Tracy bother faking all of those abdominal pains when no one is around? To fool the viewer, sure, but not for any reason that makes sense in character.
As I said, these plot holes are simply huge, too numerous and too obvious to ignore. And yet I still like the movie. Why? Maybe it's Harold Becker's moody atmosphere, or Josef Sommer's understated performance as Jed's attorney, or George C. Scott's powerful cameo, or the brilliant Aaron Sorkin monologue that Baldwin delivers at a crucial moment. I like how the main plot involving the scam and the subplot involving a serial killer turn out to be, not connected, exactly, but consequential to each other. I like the nice character touch that you only gradually learn that Andy is friends with the detective investigating the serial killer. I like a lot of things about this flick. But I can't realistically call it a good movie. I enjoyed it anyway.
posted by Movie Man at
2:45 AM
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