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From:Clint Eastwood , Gene Hackman , Ed Harris , Laura Linney , Scott Glenn , Absolute , Warner Home Video ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#5141 |
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2 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
 A solid thriller with a message, 2005-10-24
Absolute Power is not among Clint Eastwood greatest films, but it's much better than is usually given credit for. A dark thriller, directed as professionally and bleakly as only Eastwood can do it, Absolute Power centers around Luther Whitney, a professional burglar (Eastwood himself, in one of his best performances in the last decade), who finds himself in a classic wrong place, wrong time situation - while robbing a luxurious mansion, he accidentally witnesses a sexual assault and a murder, and the subsequent cover-up, that involves the President of the United States and the White House staff. That scene at the very beginning of the movie is probably the strongest one in it, Eastwood making brilliant use of cinematography, music (and especially the lack of) and his trademark heavy contrasted lighting, and with almost no dialogue at all, it's a remarkably effective scene that overshadows much of the rest of the film.
Still, as the film turns into a more standard conspiracy-thriller, it holds its own quite well, mainly due to William Goldman's wonderful script (as his always are, this is the genius who wrote 'The Princess Bride', 'Marathon Man', 'Misery' and 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', among others) and most of all thanks to the absolutely fantastic all-star cast; other than Clint himself, who is ideal as the charming, ruthless but honest criminal, fantastic performances are also given by Gene Hackman as the President and by Ed Harris as the detective on the case. The rest of the excellent cast includes Laura Linney ('Primal Fear') as Luther's daughter; the fantastic Judy Davis ('Naked Lunch', 'Barton Fink') as the President's sneaky assistant; Scott Glenn ('Buffalo Soldiers'); Dennis Haysbert ('Far From Heaven'); E.G. Marshall ('Tora! Tora! Tora!'); Penny Johnson ('24'); and Richard Jenkins ('Six Feet Under'). As is usually the case with Clint Eastwood's films, all the actors seem to have been hand-picked by him directly, rather than participated in an audition, because each character seems to have been designed specifically for the actor portraying them. Because of that cast and the brilliant directing and dialogue, Absolute Power is an entirely gripping watch, even if the story is at times less than entirely convincing and just a little fragmented.
Absolute Power tries to make its mark on three levels - the thriller level is the only one where it completely succeeds, and it manages to be constantly exciting, gripping and enticing. It works slightly less well on the human level, because the inter-character relationships are rather poorly developed. Laura Linney's character in particular is underdeveloped, and so the father-daughter relationship element hardly carries any weight in the story, and neither does her relationship with Ed Harris's character. As there is no interaction between Eastwood's character and Hackman's, the only relationships that are worth mentioning are the ones between Eastwood and Harris, which is strictly superficial and based on mutual respect, and the one between Hackman and Marshall, who plays the old billionaire who funded Hackman's rise to the presidency. The third level on which the film works is as political commentary; there it achieves partial success, as the story often seems contrived (although, one might note, not as contrived as we may imagine). Still, it can give you a general idea of how absolute power corrupts, and of the kind of horrors that the intricate systems of democracy might hide; but it's not to be taken too literally. The strongest elements of the story are the mystery, and Clint Eastwood's character, clearly the strongest in the film; as such it's a solid and enticing thriller with lots of atmosphere and wonderful acting, that will keep you glued to your seat.
4 of 15 customers found the following review helpful:
 A movie that is an embarrassment to the book., 2005-07-30
Warning: this review reveals many things about the book but nothing about the movie. I don't know how they could say that this movie is based on the book. The only thing that is really the same is the burglary in the beginning. I know how movies based on books how to cut out many parts to make it fit until the right amount of time but i never thought that they could take out the main charactor and hero. Jack Graham was the best part of the book and Clint Eastwood cut him out to make himself the main charactor. Also they made the billionare Walter Sulivan seem like a complete idiot because Luther had to tell him who killed his wife. Sulivan was a very smart man and figured it out by himself. This movie cut out many important factors of the book that made it more suspenseful. Deaths like: Walter Sulivan, Luther Whitney, Sandy Lord, Sandy Lord's mistress, and Bill Burton. I am suprised that they even killed Christy Sulivan in the first place. Also they left out many key elements of the book such as: Jack for a big one, Russell and Collin's affair, the knife being destroyed, everyones death that I mentioned before, and Kate's relationship with her father.
This movie pissed me off very much becuase it left out all of the suspence that Baldacci put in. I mean when Luther kills Collin it sounds like something straight out of Dirty Hairy "Mercy," said Collin "I fresh out," replied Luther. I mean come it's cool for an action movie with no plot but this book is one of my favorites and the movie ruined my mental image of it. Don't see the movie but I recommend the book.
5 of 5 customers found the following review helpful:
 Quite good, rather, 2005-07-09
When I first saw this movie I wasn't expecting anything great. I thought it was just going to be another 'corruption-in-the White-house-plot' but it turned out to be rather different. At the time such films were popular thanks to the Lewinskigate scandal. Absolute Power is much better than other films in the sub-genre like Murder at 1600.
The plot and subject matter are handled with care and maturity and the direction was dignifying to the source material despite having some radical changes near the end. This was the second film I saw that Eastwood had directed (after Perfect World) and I was surprised to see that he is as good at directing as he is acting. Every scene is masterfully edited and framed. Even with a 121 minute running time the film doesn't drag at any point.
I was most impressed with the opening of the movie. Despite the fact that Clint in on screen for the entire first 35 minutes he only has two short lines. I wonder why he didn't cut these out and say nothing until after the opening act as a way of giving the film a peculiar edge. Still, Absolute Power has an opening that has more class and masterful storytelling than most entire movies.
There are three other main actors in the movie. Gene Hackman as the conniving President, Laura Linney as Eastwood's estranged daughter and Ed Harris as the investigating cop. Despite the scope of the film I thought it was brilliant how Eastwood kept the entire story between a handful of characters.
Absolute Power focuses more on these characters and their motivations and feelings rather than giving us ridiculous reasons for set-pieces and shoot-outs. But the movie still has action and it is very well done indeed.
I recommend you see this movie but try to see it in widescreen to fully appreciate Eastwood's great cinematography. The DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound. Sadly, there are no extras.
5 of 6 customers found the following review helpful:
 Inappropriate Title...Good movie, 2005-06-10
This movie starts in the most smooth of ways and it carries for the first thirty minutes. It's just very well synchronised and there were around 10-15 minutes where not a single dialogue were spoken. It keeps the viewer interested. It looks like a simple movie in the end. It perfectly fits the three star grade but that doesnt mean its a bad movie. It's just that it's probably one of the best three start movies you will see.
Ed Harris acts really well in this film and there's this certain level of professionalism I notice in Sir Clint Eastwood which is what I appreciate about him.
An Average story played out in a great way.
Watch it no matter what.Definitely worth your 2 hours.
HSA
2 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
One of Mr Eastwoods better films of late, 2005-06-02
It seemed that the last few films of Clint were slipping overall. But this one is not one of them. I really enjoyed this one as it was well thought out and well performed. Bravo to all hands involved!
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