Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Robert (Ewan McGregor), a recently fired janitor who unwittingly kidnaps the beautiful daughter (Cameron Diaz) of his rich ex-boss. Screenwriter John Hodge attempts to freshen things up by tossing in gun-toting angels, a psychotic dentist, and some forced romantic comedy, but only manages the further muddle the plot...
...news, they expect to see the truth." But when people go to the movies, they also hope to enjoy textured, multi-dimensional stories that capture the complexities and ambiguities of human life, elements Mad City chooses to forsake in pursuit of powerful images, punchy lines, and contrived plot devices to drive home its message. Character development and story integrity suffer accordingly...
Hoffman's Brackett is by far the most complex and believable character of the bunch. Still, the writers need him to become more sympathetic as the climax approaches, and they try very hard to make us like him again, a feat which requires some serious mid-movie plot engineering (up to this point, we've only seen him capitalizing on tragedy and weighing the pros and cons of seducing Lori). Halfway into the film, two wolfish network producers inexplicably show us a clip of Brackett and anchor Hollander on the site of a gruesome airplane crash. Shaken by the carnage...
What ensues is a drawn-out mess of a plot, involving seduction, blackmail and some randomly inserted surrealistic interludes featuring Wallace Shawn as the devil. Nothing in the health-care industry, Lumet asserts, is what it seems, and everyone is out to make a quick buck. That's all well and good, but with material so decidedly unenlightening, Lumet as a filmmaker should at least present it in an entertaining or thought-provoking manner. Instead, he putters along, trying to convince the audience that they are seeing something...
Critical Care trumpets the same basic message over and over: contemporary American health care is all about money, and that's bad. The filmmakers are so busy wielding a sledgehammer of morality that they neglect a plot and characters, both style and substance. Instead, they take broad potshots at the health care machine that could have fit into a three-page pamphlet and turn them into a laborious, uncharacteristically amateurish work...