Absolute Power
In the wake of trying to exploit the image people had of Presidents Kennedy and Clinton as shameless philanderers came this 1997 movie from Clint Eastwood which combines a political conspiracy thriller with an old-style true crime story that has more pulp than a truckful of rotten oranges, leading to a final product that basks in its own absurdity to say the least. Eastwood plays a career thief and master burglar who breaks into an old billionaireâs home only to be forced to hide when he hears people coming. From his hiding place he sees the billionaireâs wife along with her lover who happens to be the President Of The United States! Turns out the Prez enjoys rough sex, and when things start to get out of hand, in runs the Secret Service who proceed to calmly put a bullet in the womanâs head!! Without hesitation, the cover-up begins (especially since the billionaire is the Presidentâs mentor and old friend), and Eastwood bares witness to it all, which puts him in quite a world of shit when he tries to make his escape (and outruns the much younger agents). Things go from there with a snailâs pacing as Eastwood tries to decide whether to run or rather clear his name, even with a fine cast in tow with mixed results: Gene Hackman as the President is such an unrepentant sleazebag that one wonders just how the hell he got elected in the first place; Ed Harris as the cop leading the investigation gets a couple of nice scenes with Clint; Laura Linney as Clintâs daughter keeps her trademark bitchiness at about medium level, and comes off more likable as a result; Judy Davis hams it up to the extreme as the dragon lady chief of staff who engineers the coverup; Scott Glenn as the secret service guy with a crisis of conscience never seems fully realized; while Dennis Haysbert doesnât register at all as the agent who goes along with the plan; E.G. Marshall as the billionaire isnât bad, even as the script gives him a scene where he tries to justify the propriety of an eighty-something year old man being married to a woman fifty years his junior; Melora Hardin as the ill-fated trophy wife is hot and sexy during her extended early scene with Hackman; plus there are roles here for Penny (Sherry Palmer) Johnson, future Best Actor Oscar Nominee Richard Jenkins, and famed character actors Mark Margolis and Elaine Kagen. Some may think the film is ultimately trying to paint a surreal picture of political scandal, as when Hackman and Davis dance together during a White House dinner and talk openly about the murder in front of a roomful of people (!) or when Eastwood finds himself in the crossfire of dueling assassins (one of whom was hired by the old man) both trying to take him out for different reasons entirely, but the general strangeness of everything is what finally overtakes the viewer and leaves us shaking our heads, like when the President casually orders the death of Eastwoodâs daughter which leads Haysbert to do double duty as a hit man or the completely off the wall finale, made even more frustrating because Eastwood doesnât even bother to SHOW it but rather have it all be reported on the TV news. Overall, an odd bird of a movie that some people might find entertaining, but really becomes undone by its plot holes and illogical circumstancesâŚ
5/10