Malice

Yeah, it's rated a seven, but the first time you see it, definitely a ten. Very interesting twist in the plot, and a terrific scene about Alec Baldwin's "God complex". See it to understand.

This is a pretty good movie, I'll admit that. I like Nicole Kidman, and Alec Baldwin is really just superb in a role like this. The only problem I have with this movie is that it is a complete rip-off of a TV-movie made in 1990 called "The Operation", starring Lisa Hartman and Joe Penny in the Kidman and Baldwin roles respectively. Typically, the move from low-budget TV-movie to Hollywood blockbuster has brought the expected revisions and 'beefing up' of the script. Everything added was extraneous and served no real purpose. "The Operation" was actually a far better movie than this one, even if it was done on a movie-of-the-week budget. Watch it, and I think you'll agree.

Odd suspense thriller about smooth, suave doctor Baldwin moving in with Pullman and Kidman and the various strange things that start happening after he moves in. Weird to say the least, you have to give it a couple of viewings before you truly understand it and maybe appreciate it. It does kind of make you long for the days when Alec Baldwin was smooth as opposed to now, where he's kind of bloated and coasts on playing this repulsive lug characters like in "The Cat in the Hat" and "Along Came Polly". Bill Pullman does a decent job of playing the film's wrongly viewed protagonist character, and Nicole Kidman, in an early role, makes the most of her role as Bill's girlfriend. Another reason to rent this one, of course, is the fact that it featured one of Nicole's first love scenes, and you do see a good bit of her, and you can't help being impressed with what you see. Hard to believe she was only 26 when she took off that flannel shirt.

To me Malice was a big disappointment. While I don't really find fault with the actors or the directing, the screenplay really stinks. I don't mind a storyline that runs in jumps, is unexpectedly shifting from one issue to another or characters who aren't what they seem to be, but it all should have a justification and some credibility. In this movie most of it just came across as a bad excuse because the writers didn't come up with a better idea. Malice has a big budget thrust and can't help being pretentious. That makes me angry, and as a viewer I feel cheated. Some reviewers dare compare Malice with a Hitchcock picture. Every Hitchcock picture I have seen explores at least one of the main characters, their specific situation, trying to explain why these characters act and behave the way they do. Hitchcock pictures, for all their horror and shock value, are morally sound. I should like to call them honest. In Malice, some gruesome events and additional characters are just thrown in for good measure or out of embarrassment. The main characters come through as greedy, shallow and basically soulless creatures. In the context of this movie I find this somehow dishonest. One of my three stars goes to Bill Pullman. Before, I knew him only from movies where he appeared in slick successful macho type roles. Here he plays a mild schoolteacher and shows that his range is much wider than I had previously thought. Two stars go to Anne Bancroft whose short performance up to a point atoned for the movie's lack in script integrity. I found it a pleasure just to watch her shuffle those cards.

In Massachusetts, there is a rapist attacking young women and Detective Dana (Bebe Neuwirth) is investigating the cases. The college professor Andy Safian (Bill Pullman) and his former student and presently school teacher Tracy (Nicole Kidman) are happily married and are trying to have a baby. When the last victim of the rapist that studies at Andy's college is sent to the Saint Agnes Hospital, the surgeon Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin) saves her life. Andy recognizes Jed that had studied with him and they become close to each other. Soon Andy invites Jed to rent a room in his house to help him in the expenses despite Tracy's protest. When Tracy has a miscarriage, Jed takes the decision of removing her ovary with the support of Andy to save her life without waiting for the results from the laboratory. Soon he leans that Tracy's ovary was healthy and she decides to sue the hospital in US$ 20 million, using her friend, the lawyer Dennis Riley (Peter Gallagher). Tracy leaves Andy and accuses Jed of God Complex. When another student of Andy's college is murdered by the rapist, Andy becomes a suspect and has to donate sperm to prove his innocence. When Detective Dana shows Andy the laboratory result that clears him, he finds that he is sterile. Now Andy decides to investigate his wife deeper and finds hidden secrets about her. "Malice" is a great thriller from the 90's, with a plot with many twists. Alec Baldwin has a magnificent performance in the role of an ambitious doctor with God Complex. The twists lead the viewer to different directions and the truth about Tracy is totally unpredictable. Last but not the least, it is great to see the young cast with Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher and Gwyneth Paltrow working with the veterans George C. Scott and Anne Bancroft. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Malícia" ("Malice")

I loved Anne Bancroft in this. She's good in anything but she was wonderfully wicked in this. A deliciously smart and nasty boozy mommy. I miss her as an actress and as a great human being. Nobody's quite like Anne Bancroft. She will be missed by people like me who love her. She's like the spider with the fly with she's talking with Kidman's hubby who just doesn't get the situation. Bancroft brings enormous power to this character. She's got to be one of the most extraordinary women actresses of our time. She's right up there with Streep and other greats.

Take a surgeon with a God complex, a perfect young wife who loves kids, add a sincere doofus of a husband and you will have Malice, an intricate insurance-murder mystery that leaves a satisfyingly full-bodied, nasty taste in your mouth. Andy Safian (Bill Pullman) is a decent, sincere dean at a picture-perfect small college in a picture-perfect New England town. His wife, Tracy (Nicole Kidman), volunteers at a children's center five days a week. They've just bought an old, rundown Victorian house they plan to remodel and fill with kids of their own. In to town comes Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin), the hospital's new surgeon and a hot shot cutter. Andy and Jed meet the same day and Jed winds up renting Andy's and Tracy's third floor room. Jed needs a place to stay temporarily and Andy and Tracy can use the extra income for remodeling expenses. And then Tracy starts to have abdominal pains. One night she's rushed to the hospital, where Jed operates after getting Andy's permission. Jed removes an ovary he says was cancerous. It turns out Tracy had been pregnant and the ovary was healthy. A medical hearing is held. The result is that Tracy is awarded $20 million, but she is so angry with Andy that she leaves him. Ah, but there's more. To say what would ruin a good mystery. Let's just say that there are a lot of twists and that things very often aren't what they seem. There is some really unpleasant manipulation going on, plus a degree of sexual ruthlessness that would make a fine entry into Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis. The most serious drawback to the movie is a major red herring involving a serial criminal that goes nowhere. The purpose seems only to give Andy a reason to spend the last half of the movie with a seriously bruised face. There also is a semi-red herring involving a doctor in another town that, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out. I think it was most likely a plot point that became a loose string the director figured the audience would forget about. The movie features fine performances by all. Pullman's decent guy persona drives the second half of the movie. Two one-off cameos by George C. Scott as a respected surgeon and Anne Bancroft as...well, you'll need to see the movie...are both important to the plot. Bebe Neuwirth as police detective Dana Harris, a friend of Andy's, nearly steals every scene she's in. She uses an accent that reminds me of Maerose Prizzi, but even so she radiates no- nonsense common sense and a real concern for Andy. Nicole Kidman is what the movie is all about. She gives a performance that is subtle and forceful. Amazingly, 16 years after she made this movie her forehead still has no trace of a wrinkle. Alec Baldwin has spent the latter half of his movie career specializing in unlikable egoists. Here he's interesting and at least a little likable. And does his character, Dr. Jed Hill, really have a God complex? Here's what Dr. Hill has to say for himself: "I have an M.D. from Harvard. I am board certified in cardio- thoratic medicine and trauma surgery. I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever sick at sea. So I ask you: When someone goes into that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trauma from post-operative shock, who do you think they're praying to? Now, go ahead and read your Bible, and you go to your church...and, with any luck, you might win the annual raffle. But if you're looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November 17, and he doesn't like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something: I am God." On balance, Malice is a nifty piece of complex nastiness.