Absolute Power

I have to say, that, ok maybe some of the actions of this film are a little manifested, but nevertheless, it holds for some nice suspense when it is required, and it also has a lot of eclectic moments(i.e. moments when the feeling is far from previous, yet conveyed appropriately). Besides the plot, this film has a wonderful, albeit short, soundtrack(composed by Clint), and good settings. A nice little ending on it too. Oh, and I have to say that Ed Harris is a excellent at 'doing' the sarcastic cop. I love it!

When expert thief Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) breaks into the luxurious mansion of a politically influential billionaire (E.G. Marshall) , he is surprised by the arrival of a couple (Gene Hackman , Melora Hardin) . After their drunken shenanigans turn nasty that leads to crime and taking place a set-up in which everyone around him is involved . There is only one witness , an ultra-secretive master burglar . Luther is soon pursued by two cops (Ed Harris , Penny Johnson) , a hit man (Richard Jenkins) and the President security guards (Dennys Haysbert , Scott Glenn).

This is a light thriller in Hitchcockian style including action , suspense , thrills , improbable events and twisted intrigue . It is about the ruthlessness of people in power but the plot lacks even a political analysis or comment . This Eastwood film is solid but nothing really stick out . It is hard to take against contemporary time , as portraying a coward , cynical , traitor President , being politically incorrect for Hollywood standards . In addition , it contains some unlikely scenes as when the silly dancing between President/Gene Hackman and his cabinet chief/Judy Davis who wears a robbed necklace . Based on the novel by David Baldacci , being screen-writer the notorious William Goldman , who wrote such important successes as Marathon man , Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid , All the President's Men , The princess bride , Misery , among others . This Absolute power (1997) was well-received as well as the subsequently shot Space Cowboys ; however , both of them don't rank with Clint's best jobs as actor/filmmaker . Adequate Clint Eastwood in his ordinary stoic acting as a professional burglar who witnesses both a crime and a cover-up . Nice acting by Gene Hackman as a philander President believes that everything he does is beyond reproach . Support cast is frankly well such as Laura Linney , Melora Hardin , Kenneth Welsh , Mark Margolis, Penny Johnson , Richard Jenkins and cameo of Alison Eastwood , Clint's daughter . Furthermore , the picture displays an atmospheric and sensitive musical score by means of piano composed and performed by Lennie Niehaus , Eastwood's usual . Colorful cinematography by Jack N. Green filmed on location in Washington and Los Angeles .

The film was professionally performed and directed by Clint Eastwood . It has some flaws and gaps ; but it's nevertheless solidly agreeable . The picture is far from his other big hits such as his first directed western , Unforgiven (1992) also with Gene Hackman , which garnered him an Oscar for Best Director, and a nomination for Best Actor . Then he took on the secret service in Open fire (1993), which was a success , followed by the interesting but poorly received drama , A perfect world (1993), with Kevin Costner as a thief . Next up was a love story , Bridges of Madison (1995), which was yet again a hit . Subsequent pictures were enjoyable but nothing to do with previous works . Among them were the and the badly received True crime (1999) and Blood work (2002) . Then in 2004, Eastwood surprised yet again when he produced, directed and starred in Million Dollar Baby (2004). The movie earned Eastwood an Oscar for Best Director and a Best Actor nomination for the second time . He had other successes directing the multi-award-winning films Mystic River (2003), Flags of our fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and The changeling (2008) . After a four-year hiatus from acting, Eastwood's return to the screen in the successful Gran Torino (2008) .

What starts out with immense potential gradually evaporates into preposterousness in ABSOLUTE POWER. That doesn't make it an entirely bad picture, but it certainly puts a damper on what could have been. Clint Eastwood is an aging thief (he's been an aging something or other for his last 20 movies) who secretly witnesses President Gene Hackman get rough with his mistress. The encounter ends with her being shot by the Secret Service as she tries to defend herself, and the incident is promptly disguised to look like run-of-the-mill foul play. He may be on the outside of the law looking in, but Clint ain't about to let the powers that be get away with this one.

The opening 20 minutes of ABSOLUTE POWER are quite suspenseful, bordering on mesmerizing. There we are, trapped in a walk-in, two-way mirrored vault along with our pilfering hero, helpless to stop the horror unfolding just meters away. Eastwood may start out as the bad guy, but his status is quickly upgraded as he flees the scene holding what may be the only piece of evidence that can prove his astonishing observation. From then on we find ourselves rooting him on, even if he is in reality nothing more than the lesser of two evils.

What unravels ABSOLUTE POWER is its laziness and improbability. In an attempt to set up one stirring scene after another, the characters begin doing and saying things one would expect of a low-rate Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. A one-dimensionally evil Secret Service man surreptitiously hunkers down in a tall building trying to snipe Eastwood ala Lee Harvey Oswald. A police detective has no problem with Eastwood sneaking around his home at all hours of the night. A three-minute argument by Eastwood's thief is enough to convince the mistress's widower of the involvement of the most powerful man on earth. And to call the ending outlandish and unsatisfying would be a pair of understatements.

As well, though it's usually the other way around, ABSOLUTE POWER would have benefited from a longer running time. One comes away with the sense that Eastwood, who also directed, tried to cram too much into too little. The film certainly had the material to go longer, and its compactness gives the whole endeavor a choppy feel at times.

ABSOLUTE POWER is a film you really want to like. There is considerable talent involved here, and the movie's heart seems to be in the right place. But like that one photo we all have in our album, this one didn't turn out as good as we would have hoped.

Luther Whitney is a professional thief, he also happens to be exceptional at it. During a carefully planned burglary at the home of wealthy Walter Sullivan, Whitney is disturbed to hear voices coming from outside the room he is in. Hiding in a secret room he observes from behind a two-way mirror the cheating wife of Sullivan with her lover for the night. Whitney is further startled to find that the man in the company of Mrs Sullivan is none other than the current president of the United States, Allen Richmond. He is then horrified to witness the couples union getting out of control, Richmond starting to get far too heavy handed with the lady in question. Things spiral out of control and during the fight Mrs Sullivan goes to stab the President with a paper knife, thus giving the entering secret service agents no choice but to gun her down. Sensing a political scandal, the agents and Richmond's Chief Of Staff, Gloria Russell decide to cover the incident up. Whitney, after making his escape, doesn't know what to do, who's going to believe a renowned thief, but crucially, will he be allowed to live if he comes forward? Dastardly goings on and government cover ups are merely part of what is going on in the search for Absolute Power.

Absolute Power is a fine film, but I'm a little biased because I really like the pacing of the picture and more importantly, I like the plot. It's true that the film fails to capitalise on its first hour set up, we are brought into Whitney's world and given reminders of dodgy doings that blight so many countries political machinations, but then director Clint Eastwood and his team fall in to the trap of adding strands that merely alter the viewers attention span, thus taking us away from what was a concrete and wholly engrossing plot arc. But with a truly diamond cast of professionals in the piece, the film manages to stay the good side of good, tho the ending is one that is sure to be a divisive one for any prospective first time viewers. Eastwood stars as Whitney and is joined by Gene Hackman (President Allen Richmond), Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn, Dennis Haysbert, Judy Davis and E.G. Marshall. William Goldman adapts from David Baldacci's popular novel, and Eastwood's direction is the usual steady professional job that he would further enhance down the line with the likes of Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby.

Should have been a truly great political based thriller/drama, but as it is, I settle for it being a way above average one that has far too many good points to ever see it as being below average or bad. 7/10

Some actors, upon reaching their sixties or seventies, retire. Some enter into a sort of semi-retirement whereby they continue to accept cameo parts but not leading roles. Some, however, try and revisit the triumphs of their youth by making the same sort of films that they were making twenty or thirty years earlier. There are too many examples to list them all, but I was less than enthusiastic to note that Sylvester Stallone, at the age of sixty, has just made his sixth "Rocky" film and is currently working on his fourth "Rambo".

Clint Eastwood is a rare example of a star who managed to remain a leading man throughout his seventh and into his eighth decade, but did so without a desperate attempt to put the clock back. (Doubtless his status as a director and producer has given him a greater influence inside the industry than many of his contemporaries). In his early sixties he made "Unforgiven", one of the all-time great Westerns, in which he starred as an ageing gunfighter, and since then has made a number of other films, such as "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Million Dollar Baby", in which an older man takes centre stage. Occasionally his roles have contained elements of an old man's wishful thinking, such as his romance with Rene Russo in "In the Line of Fire", but even in that film his character's age was important to the plot.

"Absolute Power", made when Eastwood was sixty-seven, is another older man's film. His character, Luther Whitney, is a veteran burglar who has broken into the Washington mansion of an elderly millionaire named Walter Sullivan, where, from his hiding-place, he inadvertently witnesses a killing. Sullivan's young wife Christy enters the bedroom with her lover, who is none other than the President, Allen Richmond. What starts out as a consensual love-making session goes wrong when Richmond, clearly a lover of rough sex, starts slapping Christy. She takes exception to this and slaps him back. Things get out of hand, and she attempts to stab him with a letter-opener. Richmond calls for help and his Secret Service bodyguards burst into the room and open fire, killing Christy.

Some reviewers have described Christy's killing as "murder", but legally this is not correct. Had the two bodyguards ever stood trial for murder, they would have been acquitted as they were only carrying out their duty to protect the President's life, but things never get that far. Richmond is too shocked to take any action, but his Chief of Staff Gloria Russell, realising that if the truth ever came out it would destroy his career, organises a cover-up. When the President's staff realise that Luther was a witness to the killing, he is forced to go on the run.

This could have been the plot of a very mundane political thriller, but Eastwood, both as actor and director, is able to lift it above that level. Despite Luther's criminal tendencies, Eastwood is able to make him a sympathetic figure, a man with his own sense of decency and honour. He had the assistance of a very strong cast, featuring some of Hollywood's most accomplished actors. There is E.G. Marshall in his last feature film as Sullivan, Gene Hackman (always a very watchable villain) as the hypocritical Richmond, Judy Davis as Gloria and Ed Harris as the police chief who is investigating Christy's death and soon comes to realise that there is more to it than meets the eye. A particularly important role is played by the very talented Laura Linney as Luther's daughter Kate. She has become estranged from her father as she disapproves of his criminal lifestyle and now works as a criminal lawyer, prosecuting on behalf of the police. When she realises that her father is in danger, however, she comes to his assistance, and they start to rebuild their relationship.

The idea that their President might be a philanderer would have come as no surprise to most Americans in the mid-nineties, even though this film came out just before President Clinton was caught up in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Eastwood was not, however, interested in doing something along the lines of "Primary Colors" or "Wag the Dog"; there is no attempt to make Richmond a disguised portrait of Clinton, and we do not even learn if he is a Democrat or Republican. "Absolute Power" is intended as a thriller, not a satirical comedy. Nevertheless, it does tap into the feeling that many Americans have had, ever since the Watergate affair, that their Presidents cannot always be trusted to tell the truth. It is significant that the hero of this film is a burglar by trade; the implication is that such a man may be less of a crook than a politician. 7/10