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Sydney Pollack (USA, 1934), formerly a television director, debuted with
The Slender Thread (1965), scripted by Stirling Silliphant. It is a
thriller of sort, except that nobody dies. It is a race against time,
carefully timed, and the only drawback is to already know that this is
a Hollywood movie and therefore there will be a happy ending.
Alan (Sidney Poitier) is a black student who one night a week works at a crisis clinic.
Unbeknownst to him, a fisherman is leaving on a boat, looking at the picture of
a woman, and that woman is driving a car.
Once at the clinic, he is left alone, with the phone that rings all the time.
One phone call draws his attention. It's from a woman, Inga (Anne Bancroft),
who, in a sensual but desperate voice, tells him
that she has just taken enough sleeping pills to kill herself.
Alan keeps her on the line while he calls for help on the other line. The
operators start the process of tracing the incoming call, but it takes time.
Alan has to keep the woman on the line until they succeed.
She starts talking and a flashback shows that she is the same woman who was
driving. She tells him of a normal day at the office where she works as a
secretary. But then she went home and found her fisherman husband Mark upset
at her: he had just found out by accident that he is not the father of their
son. She had the child from a previous relationship and let Mark believe that
the child was his and born premature. Mark did not forgive her. She tried to
drown herself but was saved. Mark still did not forgive her. While she is
telling all of this, the operators are working frantically to trace her call,
and the doctor has come back to the clinic and is advising Alan on what to tell her.
Inga's husband had to leave on the boat, and still did not forgive her.
He came back and still had not forgiven her.
Based on her story, they find out who she is and where she lives. Two police
officers knock at the door. But another woman opens, a friend of Inga to whom
Inga has endeared her son. Inga has driven away, and the friend does not know
why. The police begins a search for the car.
A final flashback shows how that morning she wandered around the beach, and
tried in vain to save the life of a dying bird, and then tried in vain to talk
to someone at a mental hospital, and finally took a motel room and swallowed
all the sleeping pills.
An operator finally traces the call and the police and firemen are dispatched
to the airport motel where she is.
But Alan can tell from her fainting voice that the woman is dying.
There are 200 rooms in the motel and it will still take time to find her.
The woman collapses to the floor. Alan has lost her. Her husband arrives at
the crisis clinic and tries in vain to talk to her on the phone. She is
unconscious. When they are beginning to despair, they hear the voice of
the police on the phone: they found her, and she is still breathing.
It was followed by
This Property Is Condemned (1966), a mediocre adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play,
the western The Scalphunters (1968) and the war drama
Castle Keep (1969).
They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), the first film that Pollack both
produced and directed, based on Horace McCoy's 1935 novel,
is an urban drama that manages
to pack a lot of cruelty in a peaceful story. The film has the atmosphere of
a film noir but it is set in an unsual underworld. There are no gangsters
and no femmes fatales, but the sentiment of failure is even more profound.
Gloria (Jane Fonda) is one of the contestants to a marathon dance during the
Great Depression, an idea she got while recovering at the hospital from
a suicide attempt. The dancers are the entertainers of a show that the
producer and host makes sure keeps being entertaining as they drop exhausted
one after the other. The dancers are basically the equivalent of Roman
gladiators for an audience that craves exhaustion and failure. Each couple has
a desperate need to win. Every so many hours they are allowed to rest in
a dark room, like animals in a cage. Gloria, who has a story of disappointments
and feels that her youth is passing by, dances with a kind cowboy, Robert,
who dreams of becoming a director. Gloria instead is cynical. She is willing
to go through any humiliation, convinced that nothing is worth nothing.
She pokes fun at a pregnant girl, who wants to give birth to another
desperate soul without having the means to raise him. Every day some couples
get eliminated. Some of them cry hysterically and beg sheepishly, but in vain.
When Robert lets a girl grab him erotically, Gloria dumps him and joins a
sailor. However, the sailor has a heart attack and Gloria has to get back with
Robert. The producer comes up with a scoop: that they get married. But Gloria
has had enough, both of this game and of life itself, and she leaves.
She is more desperate than ever, her life more hopeless than ever. Robert
follows her. She asks him to help her. He does so: he shoots her dead, just
like they shoot horses when they are suffering.
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) is, superficially, an agiographic legend of the
Far West, inspired by Thoreau's "Walden".
It is, however, also a metaphorical tale of a human being who would like to
live like a hermit but is dragged back into the dirty world of senseless
human violence.
Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) has turned his back to human society and lives
in the wilderness of the Far West, surrounded by mountains and lakes.
The first scenes set a theme of the tiny powerless man living in harmony with
the might of Nature. An Indian observes him without uttering a word, almost
like a professional deriding an amateur, but also a symbol of the danger that
lies ahead. Jeremiha is unprepared for the deadly winter of the mountains.
He finds the frozen body of a man who, knowing he was dying, wrote his will and
bequeathed his rifle to whoever found it. As he is marching through snowy
fields, he meets an old man who looks like the Abonimable Snowman, who lives in
the woods and collects bear claws. He gives him advise about surviving the
Redskins and gives him the tools he will need. After a while, Jeremiah resumes
his journey alone. His idyllic time does not last long. One day he stumbles
into a farm that the Redskins have attacked. The only survivors are
the settler's wife, who has gone crazy, and a boy, who has turned mute.
The wife begs Jeremiah
to take her child with him, so he becomes the child's
surrogate father. They soon run into a white man, Del Gue, who has been buried in the
sand up to his neck, left by the Redskins to die of a slow death. They help
him out, but he turns out nothing but trouble. Del Gue leads them to recover his
horses from the Redskins, but, instead of just stealing the horses back while
they sleep, he kills them to get their scalps. Later they are surrounded by
the whole tribe, and the scalper hangs the scalps on Jeremiah's horse,
because he knows what the Redskins are going to do to the man who scalped
their fellow men. It turns out they are from a different tribe, that
converted to Christianity, and the chief speaks French. Jeremiah gives them
the scalps as gifts, not knowing that tradition now requires that
the chief come up with a better gift. The chief comes up with his own
daughterr, and Jeremiah cannot refuse such a generous gift. So, splitting
from an amused Del Gue, Jeremiah leaves the tribe's camp with a child
(the mute boy) and a wife (the daughter of the chief).
The wife, Swan, is a humble and gentle being (even a faithful Christian),
and she eventually conquers the white man's cold heart.
Jeremiah decides to settle down. He builds a house and starts a family life.
Their happy routine is rudely interrupted by cavalry company that needs
a scout to help them reach some wagons stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Jeremiah cannot refuse to help them. He briefly refuses to proceed over
the sacred burial ground of the nearby Redskin tribe, but then does so.
By the time he gets back to his hut, the Redskins have exacted their punishment
on him, murdering his wife and child. Jeremiah mourns, then sets fire to
the hut and starts riding alone again. Now he is a man full of hatred.
He exterminates the first group of Redskins he meets. He stops only in front
of the one who runs away and who starts singing the death song.
JEremiah seems to repent and resumes his journey alone, a devastated man
but not a man searching for more blood. But the Redskins do not forget or
forgive. One approaches his as he is fishing. They look at each other
across the pond, then jump at each other's throat. Others jump out
of the bushes, day and night, trying to kill him. When he meets
Del Gue again, he advises him to leave the mountains and move to the city.
JEremiah is retracing his steps. After narrowly escaping death from another
Redskin's attack, he visits the hut where everything started. There are new
settlers living there, scared to death that the Redskins will kill them.
Then he meets again his mentor, the old man who taught him how to survive.
Finally, on his way to Canada, he meets one more Redskin, but this one
salutes him with gesture of peace. He responds in kind and smiles.
The old-fashioned sentimental love story
The Way We Were (1973)
describes the difficult marriage between two intellectuals (Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford) of the 1930s.
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Yakuza (1975) e` ambientato in un mondo di gangster, e in un ambiente
urbano, ma ricila gli ideali del western e dei poemi cavellereschi.
Un americano a Los Angeles e` nei guai con un'associazione segreta
giapponese. Si rivolge al vecchio amico Mitchum che ha un credito morale
da parte di un membro dell'associazione. A Tokyo Mitchum ritrova fantasmi
del passato. Prestando servizio militare durante l'occupazione, aiuto` una
giovane vedova e madre di familia. Il fratello, tornato in patria dopo sei
anni trascorsi nella giungla rifiutando la resa, giuro` eterna gratitudine
all'uomo che aveva salvato sua sorella, ma anche eterno odio per la
sorella che l'aveva posto nella condizione di dover esere debitore verso
un nemico. La donna rifiuto` di sposarlo proprio per non offendere il
fratello. E per vent'anni non si rividero.
Il film nasce dall'incrocio fra le tradizioni giapponesi (il senso
dell'onore, la fedelta`, i legami familiari) e il mondo degli affari
americano.
I membri dell'associazione sono moderni samurai, legati al codice
d'onore, ma al tempo stesso contrabbandieri d'armi. Il capo minaccia
di squartare i figli dell'americano se questi non gli restituisce
un carico di armi, e Mitchum e` li` proprio per cercare di scongiurare
il massacro. Con un colpo di mano Mitchum, la giovane guardia del corpo
che lo ha raggiunto in Giappone e il giapponese riescono a liberare
gli ostaggi. Ora in perciolo e` il giapponese, minacciato dalla vendetta
del capo. Per di piu` il taciturno giapponese rifiuta l'uso delle armi
da fuoco, mentre i sicari del capo non esitano.
L'americano intanto cerca di riprendere contatto con il capo per i suoi
loschi traffici. Il capo gli spiega che deve lavare nel sangue
l'umiliazione subita nel raid, e che la testa del giapponese ribelle
non basta. Vuole anche quella di Mitchum, e la vuole da lui.
Tutto il film e` centrato sul tema dell'amicizia e sul concetto
giapponese dell'"obbligazione".
Mitchum sventa il primo attentato e strappa al sicario il nome
del mandante: e` proprio l'amico per cui ha appena rischiato la vita,
un cinico opportunista che deve risolvere in qualche modo i suoi problemi
di soldi.
Il secondo tentativo e` in grande stile: un manipolo di giapponesi contro
i due americani. La giovane guardia del corpo rimane a terra con una spada
piantata nel ventre e la figlia della giapponese muore colpita da una
pallottola. Adesso Mitchum e giapponese hanno entrambi un motivo per
uccidere il capo degli Yakuza, entrambi devono vendicare la morte di un caro.
Mitchum scopre la verita` sulla donna amata: il fratello e` in realta` suo
marito. Tornato in patria, trovo` la moglie convinta vedova fra le braccia
di Mitchum e preferi` soffocare il dolore e rinunciare alla moglie.
Mitchum fa irruzione nell'ufficio dell'amico traditore e gli scarica addosso il
caricatore. Poi si dirige con il giapponese verso il covo del capo, a
compiere l'altra vendetta.
Il giapponese liquida alla spada l'odiato nemico, mentre Mitchum spara all'impazzata sugli altri.
Poi il giapponese si trova circondato da altri sicari armati di spada e si difende strenuamente, eliminandoli uno a uno.
Mitchum avanza a fucilate nei corridoi infestati da giapponesi in agguato.
Feriti e spossati, i due si ricongiungono vittoriosi.
Le due diverse civilta` sono rappresentate dal fucile rozzo ma efficace di
Mitchum, e dall'affilatissima spada del giapponese, due modi diversi di
compiere la stessa giustizia.
Chiusa la vicenda, il giapponese si mozza un dito perche' uno dei sicari
trucidati era il figlio di suo fratello, e consegna al fratello il dito
avvolto in un fazzoletto.
Prima di tornare in USA, Mitchum vuole sistemare il debito di riconoscenza
nei confronti del giapponese, che per anni sopporto` in silenzio la relazione
con quella che era in realta` sua moglie. Percio` si mozza anche lui un dito
e glielo offre in un fazzoletto, come simbolo del proprio pentimento.
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Three Days of the Condor (1975), adapted from the novel "Six Days of the Condor" by James Grady, is a political thriller.
The film is theoretically an indictment of the establishment, but it exploits
the two stereotypes that the establishment loves: the lonely ordinary citizen
who fights the evil giant, and the woman who is willing to give her life for him.
Joe Turner (Robert Redford), code-named Condor, is a simple, humble employee of an office that works for the CIA.
Their job is quite innocuous: scan spy novels to check if there is any reference
to real spy operations.
While Joe is out for his lunch break,
a suspicious-looking individual, wearing gloves and glasses, Joubert,
and a man dressed like a postal officer but holding a gun
walk into their offices and coldly kill everybody.
When Joe returns to the office, he finds dead bodies everywhere.
He calls the CIA headquarters but is coldly told to leave the scene and
not go home.
At that point, an executive who has an office in one of the city's
skyscrapers, receives a call confirming that the operation went well. But he
also realizes that only six, not seven, people were killed. So one is
missing, and they soon find out his identity.
Joe/Condor is scared, and, guessing that the hitmen are after him, is paranoid
about everything and everybody. He is right to be: the executive who is after
him works for the CIA. When he calls back to get instructions, this very man
gives him instructions to proceed to a narrow alley. Condor is suspicious, but
the CIA executive guarantees that his friend Sam will also be there. They do
take Sam along, but it is a trap: Joe escapes again but Sam is killed by the
hitmen in order to remove a witness.
Joe jumps into a taxi and forces a woman at gunpoint to take him to her place.
She is a photographer. He begs her to help him hide for a few days.
She clearly does not believe a word of what he says, so he has to tie her up.
Joe hears on tv that his friend Sam has been killed, and decides to pay a visit
to his wife. They were expecting him for dinner. Joe tells her to get out of
there and go to a secure location. She enters the elevator and Joubert walks
out of it. Joubert follows Joe into another elevator, but Joe manages to
escape again.
Back at the apartment, the captive woman is suddenly very sympathetic and
grants him a whole night of sex.
The following morning, while she is taking a shower, someone dressed like a
postal worker tries to kill Joe, but Joe manages to kill him first.
This time she believes him. But now she
is also in danger and has to flee with him.
A note on the body of the hitman leads Joe to understand that it is his own
chain of command that wants him dead.
Joe can relate what is happening to a report he sent to headquarters about the
possibility that there exists a shadow organization within the CIA.
Maybe such an organization truly exists and they are hiring mercenaries
to kill everybody who knows about the report.
The woman, Kathy, helps Joe kidnap the CIA executive, Higgins. Joe interrogates Higgins,
who seems as eager as him to find Joubert,
and then lets him go. Joe is beginning to see the light: maybe the CIA knows
that there is a shadow organization and is using him like bait to capture
the people who run it.
Joe found a key on the body of the dead mailman, and uses it to discover
the hotel where the hitman, Joubert, is staying. Then calls Higgins and gives
him the information. By intercepting a phone call that Joubert makes, Joe
also has the address of his boss.
In the meantime, he has put Kathy on a train (destination: her man).
Joe enters the house of the mysterious boss and begins interrogating him.
Joe understands that this is all about oil fields. Just then Joubert walks
into the room with a gun and... kills his own boss. It turns out Joubert is
a mercenary and has now been hired by the CIA to kill his old customer.
Joubert is no longer interested in killing Joe. In fact, he treats him like
an old friend and even gives him a little advice.
Joe is pathetic as he holds his moral lecture against the cynicism of the CIA.
Joe is so disgusted that he has already sent the whole story to the press.
Higgins is hardly disturbed: he knows that it won't be published,
and Joe will be more lonely than ever.
Bobby Deerfield (1977) is a loose adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel "Heaven Has No Favorites" (1961).
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Electric Horseman (1979)
Redford e` un vecchio eroe del rodeo ridottosi a fare pubblicita` che tiene
discorsi e fa passerella, quasi sempre ubriaco, vivendo di rendita sulla
sua fama. Fonda e` una reporter televisiva, fredda e determinata, che lo
affronta con domande imbarazzanti su questo suo squallido crepuscolo
alla conferenza stampa indetta per annunziare l'inizio delle registrazioni
del film a cui partecipa. La verita` e` che lui e` piu` famoso oggi che
quando era un campione del rodeo. La moglie, rurale e procace, vuole il
divorzio. Il tutto si svolge nel grande circo di Las Vegas.
A pagamento lui trotta sul palco del casino' con una giubba tutta illuminata.
Ma lui e` scandalizzato dal fatto che al cavallo siano stati somministrati
tranquillizzanti e se lo porta a spasso in campagna. Redford viene accusato
di furto dalla societa` che lo aveva assoldato. Fonda si mette sulle sue
tracce. Lo trova, ma adesso lui ha deciso di rompere con il mondo dello
show business e la pianta in asso. Lei organizza una trasmissione in cui
sostiene di avergli parlato per ore (e` il suo mestiere): lui si infuria
perche' e` falso, i padroni del cavallo la interrogano perche' vogliono
che gli aiuti a catturare il ladro. I media adesso ne parlano come di un
drogato, alcolizzato e pazzo, ma Fonda vuol far luce sul suo passato.
Redford le telefona e le da` un appuntamento sulle colline per filmare
un'intervista. Redford dichiara che non intende restituire il cavallo
a gente che lo tortura, e intende lasciarlo libero nella prateria.
Fonda lo aiuta a evitare la polizia, e poi pretende che lui
la porti con se`: sente che ha per le mani lo scoop della sua carriera.
Al termine di un inseguimento spettacolare (lui a cavallo e la
polizia in auto e moto) e catastrofico, Redford torna al camper dove lo
aspetta Fonda.
Mentre continua la caccia della polizia, Redford e Fonda avanzano soli nella
prateria verso il luogo dove Redford ha deciso che il cavallo debba essere
lasciato libero. E fanno l'amore. La fama del cavaliere e` ormai enorme
in tutta la nazione, ma Fonda nel frattempo si e` innamorata davvero e
gli confessa di aver avvertito la propria tv del luogo dove stanno
andando, ovvero che i cameramen sono probabilmente gia` li` che li aspettano.
Lui fa finta di prendersela a morte, ma in realta` non la sta portando li`,
ma in un altro posto, perche' non si e` mai fidato di lei.
Lasciato libero il cavallo, Redford se ne va per conto proprio e Fonda torna,
piu` umana, alla televisione.
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In Absence of Malice (1981) it is the reporter who is the villain.
The president of a workers' union has been missing for a while.
A government investigator wants his men to investigate Michael Gallagher
(Paul Newman), a successful businessman who happens to be the son of a
famous gangster.
Megan (Sally Field) is a reporter who overhears of the investigation. She
asks to see the investigator. Officially, he refuses to comment but then lets
her read the file on Gallagher. She now has a story: Gallagher is the prime
suspect in the disappearance of the labor leader. She has no evidence to back
her story, but her boss still wants her to print it because Gallagher has no
way to hurt the newspaper. Gallagher gets furious when he reads the article,
but has no way to prove his innocence and the newspaper is not interested in
his plea of innocence.
It turns out the investigator knows that Gallagher is innocent, and this is
only a trick to force him into collaborating with the Justice Department to
incriminate his father's accomplices.
Theresa, a shy, slightly neurotic woman who works at a Catholic school is a
life-long friend of Gallagher and rushes to see him.
The manipulative and unscrupulous Meg calls him pretending to be interested
in printing his side of the story, but instead she wants to trap him into
saying something embarrassing and goes to the appointment with a hidden
tape recorder.
The article costs Gallagher dearly: the union believes that he killed their
leader and decides to boycott his business. The workers walk out on him, and
he has to shut down operations. He calmly decides to seduce the reporter.
Theresa calls Meg and tells her that she is sure of Gallagher's innocence.
Meg manipulates Theresa, who is a devout Catholic, to confess the reason that
she is sure: Gallagher was helping her get a secret abortion the days when
the labor leader was kidnapped. Meg ignores the woman's feelings and situation,
and writes an article about it (certain to destroy Theresa's reputation at the
Catholic school and within her Catholic family). The poor woman runs early in
the morning from driveway to driveway to collect the copies of the paper
before her neighbors can read it. But then still kills herself.
Her cynicism has a limit: she finally feels guilty. She goes to see Gallagher
and tells him the name of the investigator who framed him.
Instead of looking for revenge, Gallagher contacts the district attorney to
make a deal: if they clear him of any suspicion, he will help them get
the information they want. The district attorney accepts and a press conference
clears him of all charges. In the meantime, Gallagher has been contributing
to the political campaign of the very same district attorney, apparently
without telling the beneficiary.
However, the investigator who started the bogus investigation is determined
to continue his persecution and decides to start an illegal 24-hour surveillance
program. The first thing they discover is that Gallagher and Meg are now
having a relationship.
Then they see Gallagher meeting with the district attorney, and they conclude
that Gallagher bribed the district attorney to call off the investigation.
They also tell Meg about their new suspicion, and Meg feels betrayed by
Gallagher and decides to publish the story. This time the story is about
the government, not just about suspected gangsters, so the boss of the
organized crime division (boss of the evil investigator)
calls everybody (evil investigator, district attorney, Meg, Gallagher)
for a meeting to clarify the matter. At the meeting it is soon obvious that
Gallagher has duped them all and framed the very government that framed him.
he has used everybody: the evil investigator, Meg, and the naive
district attorney.
He knew the investigation would continue illegally.
He knew it would look bad that he
was dealing secretly with the district attorney. And, most
important (and humiliating for her) he knew Meg would print it.
They all lose:
the boss asks for the resignations of the district attorney,
and fires the evil investigator, while Meg has lost her reputation as
a reporter.
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Tootsie (1982)
Michael (Dustin Hoffman) e` un attore forse brillante ma dal carattere difficile,
che si e` progressivamente inimicato tutti e adesso ha difficolta` a trovare
lavoro. Sopravvive insegnando ad altri aspiranti attori, in particolare
all'amica Sandi.
Il suo sogno e` di trovare il denaro per produrre la commedia scritta
dal suo housemate Jeff e poi interpretare la parte del protagonista.
Il suo agente lo abbandona pero`, in quanto e` diventato impossibile trovargli
lavori.
Michael, disperato, si traveste da donna e ottiene subito un lavoro.
Va a letto con Sandi, che e` ancor piu` disperata, molto insicura e un po'
nevrotica. Tootsie ha successo e fa amicizia con le altre ragazze dello studio.
In particolare, Tootsie si affeziona a Julie (Jessica Lange), un'attraente e
matura attrice e single mother che e` anche l'amante del regista.
Per aiutarla a studiare una parte, si dimentica della cena
con Sandi, facendo cosi` ingelosire Sandi.
A un party in cui presenzia come
se stesso, tenta di approcciare Julie ma e` troppo aggressivo e lei gli
tira un drink in faccia. Sul set Tootsie e Julie sono le migliori amiche.
Cominciano anzi a frequentarsi fuori dal set. Tootsie le fa da babysitter
quando lei esce con il produttore. Julie le si confida sempre piu`.
Julie le deve la propria resurrezione come donna e come attrice.
Ma Michael comincia a rendersi conto di essere entrato in un vicolo cieco.
Firma un lucroso contratto per un programma televisivo, ma significa che sara`
costretto a fare la donna per il resto della sua carriera.
Uomini di mezza eta`, compreso il padre stesso di Julie,
si innamorano di "lei" e diventa sempre piu` difficile respingerli.
Julie teme che la loro amicizia rischi di diventare un rapporto lesbico e decide
di tenerla a distanza. Sandi scopre che Michael ama un'altra donna e lo lascia.
Michael/Tootsie approfitta di una trasmissione dal vivo per cambiare lo script
della puntata e rivelare la sua identita` di maschio. Julie, esterrefatta,
approfitta di un commercial per sferrargli
un pugno allo stomaco.
Michael la confronta giorni dopo e riesce a placare la sua ira. Ridiventano
almeno buoni amici.
Paragonato ai grandi film della sua carriera, e` un film leggero, una commedia
sofisticata,
benche' sullo sfondo si intraveda la tragedia privata di un uomo troppo
intelligente per un mondo che vuole soltanto robot e zombie
e la tragedia pubblica di una societa` in cui tutti lottano per il successo
e molti sono destinati a fallire.
Il ritmo e` lento e la presentazione gradevole.
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After SongwriterOut of Africa (1985), based on the writings of Isak Dinesen,
Bright Lights Big City (1988), an adaptation of Jay McInerney's novel,
Havana (1990), set on the eve of the Castro's revolution in Cuba,
he directed
The Firm (1993), a diligent adaptation of John Grisman's 1991 novel.
Mitch is a top law school graduate who is courted by several law Wall Street firms.
Eventually he receives an offer that he cannot refuse from an obscure firm
in the less prestigious city of Memphis.
He has been living with modest means with his wife Abby and the couple is
breathless when they move into their new mansion.
Mitch takes his job seriously and works very hard while studying to pass the
bar exam. His boss is a senior partner, Avery, a cynical lawyer who talks
about the blurred line between the legal and the illegal.
One day the firm is shaken by the news that two of its lawyers have been murdered
in the Cayman Islands. At the funeral, Avery introduces himself to Abby.
One night Mitch is approached by an undercover government agent, who cryptically
implies that the government is keeping an eye on the law firm, and mentions that
two other lawyers of the firm have been killed previously.
As Mitch starts putting in longer and longer hours, his wife Abby becomes
unhappy: she values their love, not their money.
Avery takes him on a trip to the Cayman islands, a tax haven where some of their shady clients launder their money. Mitch sees that Avery keeps boxes full of
files about such clients, with a recurring name: the name of a mafia family.
Mitch also befriends the brother of the pilot who was flying the airplane that
crashed: his brother's body has never been found, nor the bodies of the other two
men who had chartered the plane, which he describes to Mitch.
During the trip Mitch is seduced by a stranger and can't resist having sex with her. He doesn't even know her name.
On the way back Mitch visits his brother Ray, who is in jail. Mitch hid this fact
from the firm otherwise they would not have hired him. Mitch then visits Eddie,
a man who befriended Ray in jail and who is now a private investigator and asks him to investigate the mysterious deaths, and so Mitch meets Eddie's eccentric
secretary Tammy, who is also Eddie's lover and whose husband is in reality just
a friend, and a fan of Elvis Presley.
Two hit men who fits the description of the two men who chartered the airplane with the murdered lawyers break into Eddie's office and interrogate him. As he refuses to reveal who commissioned him the investigation on the dead lawyers, the hit men kill him, not realizing that his secretary/lover Tammy is hiding under his
desk.
The government agent informs Mitch that Eddie has been murdered and takes him to
a meeting with an official who tells him the whole story. First of all, they warn him that the firm has planted microphones in his house and hears everything he says and has surveillance cameras everywhere in the building. Secondly, they tell
him that the firm works for the mafia family. The lawyers who try to quit are
murdered. Mitch has no choice: either he keeps working for the crooks or he will be killed. The government offers him to steal the files that will send the mafia family to jail. Mitch realizes that this will destroy his career and turn him into an easy target for the mafia, and so he refuses.
He then informs the firm that he was approached by government agents but doesn't
quite disclose everything, just enough to gain their trust.
He then drives home and tells his wife, whispering in her ear after turning on the music so the firm cannot hear what he tells her.
He is curious and starts studying the firm's most sensitive documents.
Then one day Tammy shows up, pretending to deliver a sandwich.
They talk outside the firm and she tells him that she saw the two men who killed
Eddie and why they killed him. Mitch realizes that the description fits the two men who killed the lawyers. Later that day he meets them in person: Bill, the old
security chief of the firm, drags him into a car with the killers and takes him
to a secluded location where he interrogates him about the encounter with the
agent and warns him not to cooperate. Bill shows Mitch pictures taken in the Cayman Islands of Mitch's one-night stand in the Cayman Islands: the woman who
seduced him was paid to do so. The firm can now blackmail him.
He returns to the firm and finds everybody assembled there to celebrate that
he passed the bar exam. Later Mitch decides to confess to Abby that he cheated
on her. Abby is heartbroken.
Meanwhile, Tammy has found employment as a secretary in the firm and is photocopying all the sensitive documents she finds.
Mitch meets again with the government agent and offers a deal: he will deliver the files incriminating the mafia family if the government deposits a huge amount of money in a Swiss account and released his brother from prison.
Abby decides to move out and they invent an excuse so the firm, which is monitoring their conversations, will think of a simple marital argument.
Meanwhile, Mitch has accidentally discovered that the firm has been routinely
overcharging its clients. This is actually a serious crime. Mitch proceeds to make copies of all the invoices.
Tammy visits Ray in prison and informs him that she and Mitch have a plan.
The plan consists in Tammy flying to the Cayman with Avery and Mitch's local
friend (the brother of the pilot)
distracting Avery for enough hours for Tammy to copy all the files about the
mafia family that Avery keeps in the island.
Avery meets Abby as she's moving out and shamelessly invites her to fly with him
to the Cayman Islands. Involuntarily he gives her an important piece of information: that he will have very little time. This won't give Tammy enough time.
Abby calls Tammy and the two women come up with their own time. Next we see Tammy
rushing into a pharmacy to buy a sedative.
The government releases Ray and wires the money to the Swiss account. The agent
follows Ray, ready to re-arrest him at the first chance, but Mitch and Tammy
have guessed this and, with the help of Tammy's Elvis Presley-lookalike husband,
they manage to smuggle Ray to a secret location.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Mitch, his wife Abby flies to the Cayman Islands and surprises Avery.
When they are about to have sex, Avery guesses that Abby may be there to fool him
but the sedative starts working and he falls asleep. Abby grabs the key to the
room with the files and hands it to Tammy who begins copying the files.
Bill, the security chief, has monitored the conversation between the two women
and dispatches his thugs to the Cayman Islands.
When Avery finally wakes up, he realizes that Abby fools him and that is a
death sentence because the firm won't forgive him. Avery
tells Abby that the firm paid a prostitute to seduce Mitch.
The hitmen kill Avery but the women are already on their way back with boxes
of incriminating documents.
A prison guard informs Bill of the deal that Mitch made with the government.
The firm locks all the doors to capture Mitch and Mitch has to jump from
a window and then he's chased around the city until Bill and a hitman corner
him in a basement. But Bill accidentally kills his own hitman and Mitch knocks
Bill unconscious and escapes with the proofs that the firm overcharged clients.
The mafia bosses have traveled to the firm to take care of the situation.
Mitch surprises the mafia bosses showing up in person and making a deal with them. All he wants is for them to authorize him to legally disclose the invoices
that prove that the firm overcharged them all the time. He then hints at the
fact that he has boxes of incriminating documents, but the law forbids a
lawyer from disclosing anything about a client and he does not intend to break
the law. He implies that he will keep the files as a life insurance: to make sure that the mafia will never kill him.
The mafia bosses are surprised that Mitch simply wants an authorization to disclose their invoices, which will incriminate the firm, not them, and of course they accept.
The government agent is furious because Mitch just left the mafia family alone,
but Mitch points out that the mafia needs law firms to launder their money.
Abby returns to Mitch, while Ray sails away with Tammy.
After
Sabrina (1995), a remake of Billy Wilder's classic film,
Pollack made possibly his best of the decade,
Random Hearts (1999), adapted from Warren Adler's 1984 novel,
although its romantic scenes are weak, in stereotypical Hollywood style
and largely not credible.
Dutch is a cop who investigates corrupt cops and is targeting a cop named George, whom he suspects of running a racket. He is happily married to a business woman. While he is on the job, his wife leaves him a message that she is leaving for a business trip to Miami. Kay is a politician running for reelection who is happily married to a businessman. He tells her that he has a meeting in New York and heads to the airport. Dutch sees repeatedly flashes on television of an air crash, but doesn't pay attention to it until he gets home and finds his wife's message.
He calls the airline but the airline has no record of a passenger with his wife's name. Dutch eventually understands that his wife was traveling under a different name, as the wife of the passenger sitting next to her: she had an affair.
Kay learns of her husband's death in the middle of taping an electoral message.
She is surprised that her husband flew to Miami instead of New York but
she has no clue of the affair between her husband and Dutch's wife.
After the two funerals, Dutch decides to approach Kay, determined to find out
more about the affair. That's how Kay learns of her husband's infidelity.
Kay doesn't want to know more about it and kicks Dutch out.
She has a daughter and wants to shelter her from the scandal, and she knows
that the press would love to use the scandal against her.
Dutch is stubborn, obsessed with figuring out the details of his wife's affair,
perhaps hurt that a detective like him was fooled so easily by his wife.
Dutch flies to Miami to check out the hotel that his wife had booked. Kay decides
to follow him and they bond. Someone recognizes her as the famous politician and
takes a picture of them together, which can easily be misinterpreted as if she was vacationing with a lover. On the way back they kiss.
Kay knows that the picture can destroy her career and hurt her daughter, so she
considers terminating her reelection campaign. Dutch convinces not to.
They become lovers.
At the same time that he is investigating his wife's past, Dutch is trying to
corner corrupt cop George, who has just killed a witness. Dutch even attacks
him in public, risking his job. His partner cop tries in vain to protect him.
Dutch finds out that his wife and Kay's husband were using an apartment but nobody knows where it was. Again, Kay initially doesn't want to know but then she finds out where it is. When Dutch finds out the address, he also finds Kay there.
When they leave the apartment, Dutch is shot by George. His partner cop has been following George and arrests him before he can escape. Dutch ends up at the hospital. The press now knows everything about Kay and Dutch and their spouses' affair.
Kay loses her election and has to move back home.
Dutch has been promoted and asks to see her again.
The political thriller The Interpreter (2005) is a throwback to
his Three Days of the Condor.
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