Good cast, Laughable absurd film

The unexpected plot twist is the one thing in movies that I think can make or break a film. If a film's surprise plot twist works and makes us think harder, it helps give a movie another dimension to it. Some films such as "The Sixth Sense' and "The Crying Game" had plot twists that were surprising and made me want to watch the movie all over again. However there is also the case of the movie that has too many plot twists and thus is one that is laughable,absurd and feels extremely fake. A recent example of that is "Reindeer Games". However the one movie that I still think takes the cake when it comes to surprise plot twists that do not work is "Malice".

"Malice" is a strange film. What you read on the back of the box when renting the film...well it has almost nothing to do with the plot. In fact the plot is so confusing and jagged and crazy that to start is hard because I'd be giving a lot of way. I'll try though.

"Malice" starts off well enough with Andy Safian(Bill Pullman) as a college professor who isn't having the best time of his life. There is a rapist going around raping girls on his campus. Obviously since Andy is the dean of students(from what I can gather anyways) he has to deal with this in some fashion. His home life is no better--He has been trying to have a kid with young wife Tracy(played by Nicole Kidman) but things haven't been working. Finally an old acquaintance from Andy's college days, Dr. Jed Hill(Alec Baldwin), has come into town and ends up moving in with Tracy and Andy. Well through a series of events we get a) Andy accused of perhaps being a rapist after being the one to discover a rape victim b) a botched operation on Tracy by none other than Dr. Jed Hill which results in her suing the hospital and c) a plot that stems from these events that makes us learn things about these characters that make no sense. Why don't they make any sense? Let me explain.

The events are complicated and tricky to follow and the only shining light are the supporting characters who come in for a scene, deliver a monologue, and then disappear for the rest of the movie. Anne Bancroft, Peter Gallagher,and George C. Scott each have some good scenes wherein they provide some useful information and then disappear conveniently. Personally I wish that if the film had to be so convoluted and full of twists that it had supplied a better way for us to find out. Then we have our main characters. Two of the three have such changes in their character through the movie that we can't take them or the events stemming from them seriously.

I refuse to divulge the plot twists(although somebody on here already gave away some of them so it probably doesn't matter). Let's just say that I've never seen a rapist used as a sub-plot before and I've never seen a movie wherein plot twist after plot twist pile up so crazily. Some I was able to predict...Most I wasn't. I suppose in a way the fact that the movie isn't predictable should be a good thing but when the movie doesn't add up to an even whole...Well...I felt yanked around.

The cast in this film tries their hardest. Bill Pullman does a fine job as the leading man and does his best to carry the weight of this film. In a movie where nothing is as it seems, his is the only character that seems to have any depth to it. Nicole Kidman does an ok job with her character although she is portrayed so differently in the beginning than in the end that we can't help but feel that the character is fake. Kidman does her best but doesn't add anything to her paper-thin character. Alec Baldwin meanwhile has a nice juicy role (He has one scene here where he goes off about his so called "god complex" that i found quite good)and his character is handled better than Kidman's but still he is dealt with in such a way in the end that it doesn't seem to fit. These characters are victims of a plot that isn't worthy of them.

I like the cast and I like certain parts and certain dialogues throughout the film. What I didn't care for was the plot and how it forced the characters actions. In most good movies it is the character's that make a film good. In this film we get soulless characters who change emotions/directions at the whim of the writer. Only Bill Pullman's character really comes out unscathed and for a minute there we're not even sure about that.

This is an example of film noir gone wrong. It has the look and the feel but not the texture or story behind it. There is a great cast here but they are wasted in a ludicrous absurdly plotted film.