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| Absolute Power |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 121 |
| Public Rating: 7.50 (6 votes) |
Director: Clint Eastwood |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Thriller |
Year: 1997 |
| Writer(s): William Goldman |
| Distributor: Columbia Pictures |
| Reviewed by: William Sternman |
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Alzheimer’s has its sunny side.
The other day I was watching a tape of a movie I’d never seen before. About fifteen minutes into it, I found myself predicting what was going to happen next. Of course, I had seen it before. But since I still couldn’t remember the ending, I decided to stick with it. The movie was Absolute Power and I’m glad I did.
The nice thing about Alzheimer’s is that you can see the same movie over and over again almost as though you had never seen it before. I’ll just have to keep a list of the movies I do want to see again.
Clint Eastwood, who is five years older than I am, has let himself age onscreen for all the world to see. He doesn’t pretend to be anything but what he is. (With that wonderfully craggy face, who’d believe him, anyway?) In this movie, which he also directed, he even jokes about having a pacemaker and belonging to AARP. Good for you, Clint!
There isn’t even a nubile love interest here. Clint plays a loner. He is estranged from his grownup daughter (Laura Linney) but watches over her from a distance. He even stocks her refrigerator with healthy foods when she isn’t home.
He’s also an art student by day and a cat burglar at night.
On his last caper (isn’t it always the last?), he observes a sex scene that turns nasty. The woman stabs her abuser with a letter opener and the Secret Service rushes in guns blazing. The man is none other than the President of the United States—Gene Hackman, in much the same dilemma he was in in No Way Out.
Eastwood watches this macabre variation on foreplay unseen. He doesn’t speak, of course, but his ever-changing emotions are reflected in his eyes and the expressions (or lack of) on his face.
That’s just the start of this tense cat-and-mouse game, adapted by William Goldman from David Baldacci’s novel. Along for the breathless ride are: Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Judy Davis and E.G. Marshall.
Don’t be surprised if I post another review of this movie sometime, because I intend to see it again. Unless I forget. In which case, I’ll undoubtedly see it again.
© William Sternman, June 4, 2004.
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