The Insider (1999)

User Review

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  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Coming off the heels of the incredible 'Heat' - a thriller that was really a melancholic character-study at its heart - Michael Mann made 'The Insider' - a thriller that's really a melancholic character-study at its heart... Yes by this point in his career this brilliant director had developed quite a nouse for getting under the skin of isolated outsider characters within the mould of engaging narratives, and this newsroom-come-courtroom thriller - based on a true story about exposing the tabacco industry - is no exception to that. The film expends most of its effort on developing Russel Crowe's character - a socially-awkward chemist whose wish to expose the corruption of his previous employers endangers his happy home life - and as the film progresses you really do feel for him and long for his success. This is helped by a great performance from Crowe, but the overall melancholy is also typically brought to life by Mann's unique ability to build atmosphere with his beautiful visuals in which the loneliness and suspicion seems to literally hang in the mist of his empty street-lit streets. This all helps to build a sense of the character's loneliness, and whilst we're hooked by him, we're also gripped by the story that he finds himself in as a result, and that high-intensity language is also one that Mann is well-versed in. The newsroom sequences where Al Pacino battles for our central character's case are powerful and rousing (and often somewhat witty) and as the film descends towards its final act it really does shift you to the edge of your seat. In the end that makes for another brilliant Michael Mann movie - a very well-executed lonely character drama propelled by an engaging narrative. He's got a style but it's no niche, and he does it better than almost anyone.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The film doesn't attempt to make as profound a point you might imagine with the narrative - just that big Tabacco companies are bad and can ruin your life. The interesting point is about the character.
  
  VERDICT: 'The Insider' is another film from Michael Mann that puts a melancholic character-study into the shoes of a thriller, and even if the narrative only has so much potential, Mann makes fuller use of it than anyone surely could. He really got this kind of filmmaking perfected at this point, and there are frankly very few directors who ever manage to make films like he does.

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