Malarek (1988)

Why so much hype?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Based on true events, this Canadian movie chronicles a novice newspaper journalist's attempts to expose covered-up abuse at a juvenile detention centre in the early 1970s. As the movie progresses, we gradually find out that he survived an institution himself, which explains why he is so passionate about the case, and a young Elias Koteas is electrifying in the lead role. The structure of the movie leaves a little to be desired though with frequent flashbacks to his childhood/adolescence breaking the tension of the present day action. Some of the flashbacks are memorable (especially what one warden does when he complains about soiled bed sheets) but most just show familiar scenes of drunken fathers, crying mothers and so forth. The other major setback here is a maudlin music score that renders the denouement too sentimental for its own good. When focused on Koteas hitting brick walls and pleading with his sources to go on the record though, the film hits the right notes. The supporting cast come to task very well in this regard with Michael Sarrazin nicely bringing to mind Michael Keaton in 'Spotlight' as the newspaper's chief editor. Koteas though is the biggest attraction here, adding a welcome balance of humour to his often angry character; "they were at the end of his arms" he exclaims when asked where a juvenile delinquent's hands were during shooting.

This is the story of Victor Malarek a man who becomes a reporter inspite of his troubled childhood and attempts to expose the problems of a juvenile facility.If you are a fan of Elias Koteas, you MUST see this film. Koteas gives a tremendous performance in one of the only films where he is the main character. The soundtrack is OK and Michael Sarrazin is also pretty good as "Moorcraft" although he seems tired in the role. The only real flaw in the movie is that Koteas was approximatley 27 years old during during production playing a 23 year old combined with him also playing flashbacks of the characters teen years (you could clearly tell that Koteas is much older) however, his performance by far makes up for this.