Absolute Power (1997)

Touches You

To me, this movie is perfection.

Memorable, crazy movie

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Right out of the gate, you have to accept the premise of this film if you want to afford it any kind of credibility. It's a fairly compelling story right up until the point where we find out that Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) is the President of the United States. The same President who accompanies the wife of an important political backer to her home for the purpose of carrying on an extramarital affair. I mean really, what President would have the wherewithal to conduct a private liaison like that when virtually every minute of his day is scheduled and recorded? Who did Hackman think he is, Bill Clinton?Now if you removed the character of the President as villain, this would have worked a whole lot better. Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) could have found himself in the same series of predicaments and it would have appeared a lot more credible. There was however his relationship with daughter Kate (Laura Linney) that suggested a question mark for this viewer. With Kate admitting she wanted nothing to do with her father, and hadn't seen him in a year before he made contact again, how was it that she happened to have his phone number handy? Not saying it was impossible, but her face to face denunciation of Luther seemed to suggest that she would have kept him entirely at arm's length with no intention of ever communicating with him.I thought the ending was just a bit too stand pat as well. In his press conference, Walter Sullivan (E.G. Marshall) claims that the despondent President committed suicide by stabbing himself!!! With no witnesses!!! In a closed room with only the two of them face to face!!! And there didn't seem to be a hint of suspicion by anyone about the credibility of that story. Best thing folks, is to leave your brain at the door with this one and just roll with the action. It's actually not as bad as the way I made it sound here, but you have to suspend disbelief in a major way on the way to the finish line.

Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)USA 1996 English (Colour); Thriller/Drama (Castle Rock/Malpaso); 121 minutes (15 certificate)Crew includes: Clint Eastwood (Director); William Goldman (Screenwriter, adapting Novel by David Baldacci **** [8/10]); Clint Eastwood, Karen Spiegel (Producers); Tom Rooker (Executive Producer); Jack N. Green (Cinematographer); Henry Bumstead (Production Designer); Joel Cox (Editor); Lennie Niehaus (Composer)Cast includes: Clint Eastwood (Luther Whitney), Gene Hackman (President Alan Richmond), Ed Harris (Seth Frank), Laura Linney (Kate Whitney), Scott Glenn (Bill Burton), Dennis Haysbert (Tim Collin), Judy Davis (Gloria Russell), E.G. Marshall (Walter Sullivan)"Corrupts absolutely."Whilst robbing a philanthropic billionaire's mansion, an ageing career thief (Eastwood) secretly witnesses a drunken sexual assault, shooting and organised cover-up involving the US President (Hackman), and must subsequently evade capture by the police, assassination by the president's aides, and somehow prove his innocence having himself become the prime murder suspect.Goldman's unhurried, pared-down adaptation of Baldacci's engrossing bestseller neglects the novel's protagonist in favour of Eastwood's charismatic jewel thief, turning this cat-and-mouse political thriller into an engaging star vehicle for the film's producer/director.The first-rate supporting cast includes Harris as the empathetic cop on the case, Linney as Eastwood's estranged daughter, and Davis as Hackman's volatile chief of staff.Blu-ray Extras: None. ½ (1/10)

This review is going to contain spoilers as I want to show some oddities in the plot. I have not read the book on which it is based so I cannot comment on whether or not these oddities came from the author David Baldacci.This film was released on Clint Eastwood's 67th birthday. He directs, produces and stars in this slow-paced crime movie. Eastwood plays Luther Whitney, a cat burglar (at 67!) who targets the home of billionaire industrialist Walter Sullivan (E. G. Marshall). While in mid-burglary, none other than the President of the United States (convincingly played by fellow 67-year old Gene Hackman) enters the room with Sullivan's wife (Melora Hardin).Whitney hides in the vault, which conveniently has a two-way mirror (why?), and witnesses the woman being killed by the secret service as she was about to stab the President with a knife. The Chief of Staff (Judy Davis) concocts a plan to cover up the incident. Unfortunately Whitney has witnessed the whole thing and has the knife.Carrying a pack filled with jewels and cash Whitney manages to outrun the two trained secret service agents through a forest despite them being half his age, armed and equipped with night vision goggles.Seth Frank (Ed Harris), the police investigator, decides there are only six guys in the entire world that could pull off that theft and one of them lives right here! If only police investigation really worked like that! Frank and Whitney then have a very civil chat over a nice lunch.Whitney then decides to taunt the President by turning up in a hat and a fake beard to a guided tour of the White House and leaving a photo of the knife. Why? Whitney's daughter Kate (Laura Linney) (now remember he is a cat burglar) is a high-flying prosecutor. That makes sense. So Frank persuades her to set up her dad and bring him in. She agrees. Again we don't know why.In a hotel room of some sort with a big window a sniper is building his rifle from a kit (the Secret Service man is simultaneously building his click-together gun too). This is in a public place, in daylight! Whitney turns up in the least convincing disguise ever (not even a fake beard, just a hat and coat). They are shot at by the two gunmen with state of the art equipment (we have just seen them shooting perfectly at a rifle range) and they both miss!.Now events turn really weird. Frank rescues Kate and starts flirting with her. You might think she would be a little upset that he nearly got them both killed but the beautiful, successful lawyer invites the small, balding cop (the actors are 14 years apart in age) into her flat and flirts back! There's a weird set-up by Whitney (now disguised using a moustache), a necklace, the Chief of Staff and the President, where the President learns of the cover-up. The President then sends the Secret Service guys to kill Kate. They follow her until she parks her car at the edge of a cliff, push her car over the cliff and drive away. At the same time Whitney has found out that the Secret Service is taking over surveillance of his daughter, so he speeds across the city from a phone booth in the middle of who knows where, screeching his tyres and blowing his horn repeatedly through traffic to arrive at the same spot where she has just been pushed over the cliff. How did he know she would be there? At no time, did he see his daughter's car or talk to his daughter. She survives. When the Secret Service then try to kill her in the hospital, Whitney again arrives there at the perfect time and kills the Secret Service guy.Whitney then poses as Sullivan's driver (how?) in order to talk to him and tell him the truth and present him with the knife. Sullivan believes him and walks in to the President (through all the security) with the knife in his hand. The President then commits suicide, apparently.What stops the film from being a complete turkey is the competence of its cast. There are several actors for whom it is worth watching this film. The score and the direction is fine. Just a shame the plot is absolute rubbish.

After reading David Baldacci's "Absolute Power", I was really looking forward to seeing the film.However it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the book. No Jack Graham AT ALL, in fact non of the legal team get a mention, which was one of the best bits of the book.The sex/rape/fight/murder scene at the beginning is pathetic! Luther doesn't get killed!!, central to the book story line! Typical American - Hollywood rubbish.If Hollywood feels the American audience cannot or will not take hard, gritty and sometimes not pleasant viewing/story lines, then stop making films, especially ones that ruin great books!! Absolute Power? ABSOLUTE RUBBISH!!