MALICE
US, 1993, 107 minutes, Colour.
Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, Bill Pullman, Bebe Neuwirth, George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, Peter Gallagher, Josef Sommer, Tobin Bell, Deborah Farentino, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Directed by Harold Becker.
Malice is an intriguing thriller with a strong cast. The screenplay seems to be related very strongly, though with no acknowledgment, to the 1990 television movie, The Operation.
The film has a Boston setting, hospitals, university. Alec Baldwin is a star surgeon and operates on Nicole Kidman, then being sued for malpractice. Nicole Kidman and Bill Pullman play a married couple, he the subdean at the university college, she involved with children. There is a serial killer murdering and raping young women in Boston. Bebe Neuwirth portrays the rather hard-minded detective.
The film also has some very strong cameos from George C. Scott as the doctor’s mentor, Anne Bancroft as Nicole Kidman’s alcoholic mother, Peter Gallagher as her lawyer. There is a cameo by Tobin Bell as the rapist. Ten years later he was to achieve fame, or notoriety, as the killer in the Saw series. One of his victims in the film is played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
There are various twists in the plot which are unexpected.
The film was directed by Harold Becker who made some films of Joseph Wambaugh police stories in the 1970s, including The Onion Field. He also made the strong dramas, Sea of Love and City Hall.
1. A satisfying drama? An interesting thriller? Anticipation of the twists or not?
2. Boston, the city itself, hospitals, universities, homes, squalid areas, affluent areas? Realism? The musical score?
3. The title and its application to Jed, Tracy, Andy?
4. The plausibility of the plot, doctors and surgeons, universities, police investigation, serial rapists? This as a background to the fraud and its set-up?
5. The rape story, the victims, the film focuses on the tracking of the victims? Paula Bell and her interview with Andy? His concern about her, the secretary and the call, going to the apartment, finding her dead? Detective Harris and the inquiries? Her hard attitude?
6. The link of the rapist story to the main story, the perpetrator taking the hair of the victims? Andy and his meeting with Paula? His being required to give DNA evidence, the report of his sterility, his wife’s pregnancy, his suspicions, leading to the fraud?
7. His being at the university, the lights failing, going to the basement, the search, the photo and the hair, Earl as the caretaker, his story, Earl attacking Andy, his arrest?
8. Tracy and her being with the children, meeting Andy, the seeming happy marriage, the renovations in the house, the costs, wanting children? Her links with her attorney, Dennis Riley? Andy’s suspicions? Tracy’s pains, abdominal? The pills? Her antipathy towards Jake, his coming to stay, his noise upstairs, her growing animosity, her collapse, the emergency phone call, the operation, Jake performing it, Andy permitting it? The removal of the ovary, the later information, Tracy’s reaction, her anger, suing?
9. Jake, the initial operation, the star surgeon, his manner, his arrogance, warning his assistant against him? The meeting with Andy, the school acquaintance, discussions, moving into the apartment, Tracy and her reaction, his women, at the bar, drinking?
10. The hearing, the testimony, especially from Doctor Kessler? His missing out on the job, the report, the discussions about his God complex? His anger? Dennis Riley and his interrogation, Jake’s lawyer and his trying to defend him? The importance of Jake’s long speech about the God complex and his conclusion that ‘I am God’? walking out? The impression he made? His talk of taking responsibility, it being his fault?
11. The interaction between Andy and Dennis Riley, Andy’s suspicions, Dennis telling the truth, the mention of Tracy’s mother, the truth about her being alive? The warning to take the whiskey to her?
12. The sequence with Tracy’s mother, her drinking, talk, the card trick, the story of Tracy’s background, the money, her father, her saving up the money and her father taking it, having a child?
13. Jake, his pleasant manner, urging Andy to Sue?
14. Andy, his own detection work, the background of the doctor that his wife consulted in Boston, the visit? Finding Jake and Tracy together? The plot? His putting the syringe in the bed?
15. His meeting with Tracy, her animosity, trying to soft-sell him, his demand for half the money?
16. Tracy and Jake, romantic, the plan, her talking too much, Jake warning her against loose ends?
17. Jake, Tracy’s flaw, her pulling the gun on him, persuading her to put it away but her shooting him?
18. Andy and his meetings with Detective Harris, their discussions, her job, tough, helping Andy, the confrontation with Tracy?
19. The threat to the child, Tracy wanting to kill the child, Andy and the set-up, the shooting, her arrest, seeing that her son was a blind boy?
20. An interesting character study, strong performances, intrigue and twists?
