Absolute Power (14 February 1997)
directed by Clint Eastwood
starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn, Dennis Haysbert, Judy Davis, E. G. Marshall, Kenneth Welsh, Mark Margolis, Charles McDaniel
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MPAA rating: Studio: Castle Rock Entertainment Script: William Goldman Based on the book by: David Baldacci Music: Clint Eastwood, Lennie Niehaus Running time: 121 minutes Tags: burglary; corruption; Crime; murder; novel adaptation; painting; Politics; presidents; rape; thieves Tactical strength: [6/10]
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for violence, sexuality, and language
Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) breaks in to and robs the mansion of billionaire and staunch White House-supporter Walter Sullivan. While Whitney is in Sullivan's vault, he witnesses the President of the United States (Gene Hackman) sexually assault Sullivan's wife, Christy. When Christy momentarily gets the upper hand, the President calls for help and Secret Service agents shoot Christy. Stuck in the vault -- which conveniently has one-way windows -- Whitney watches as the agents and the president's press secretary spend hours sanitizing the scene to remove any evidence that they or the president had been in Sullivan's house. For the remainder of the film, Whitney pursues two goals: not letting the president get away with murder and repairing his relationship with his daughter Kate (Laura Linney).
Goldman writes the characters to match the modern clichés: the protagonist although a thief must demonstrate good morals and have adequate justification for all his actions, and the antagonist must demonstrate such inhuman acts that the audience will agree with side-stepping justice and killing the bad guy. Since the good guy is an unreformed ex-convict and the bad guy is the U.S. President, Goldman goes to extra lengths to convince the audience that Whitney is good and the President is bad. For example, Whitney returns all the goods he stole from Sullivan, surreptitiously fills his daughter's refrigerator with nutritious food, and doesn't kill the President himself, but only arranges for Sullivan to learn the truth about the President. Since we know from the one-way window in the vault that Sullivan has kinky tastes, he clearly has the will and means to exact revenge on the President.
While Whitney's good acts provide enough evidence to convince you that Whitney really is a "good guy," his essential inaction leaves the character seeming bland and passive. On the other hand, the script never convinced me that the President was any better or worse than many other presidents, real or cinematic.
The characters all come off flat, and it's hard to tell if the problem lies in the script, the directing, or the acting. The actors all seem to have taken lessons from Eastwood's school of acting and deliver their lines in an emotionless monotone, and the lines themselves aren't particularly inspiring or profound. We do have some good performances by Ed Harris as Detective Frank assigned to investigate the murder and Judy Davis as the President's press secretary.
Eastwood does manage the suspense of Absolute Power very well. So well that I didn't really notice many of the flaws until I watched the film a second time. So, I recommend seeing Absolute Power once for the pleasant thrill, but then don't pollute the pleasant memory with closer scrutiny of repeated viewings.
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