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Absence of Malice

Sony Pictures

The ethics of the press are roundly slapped around in an entertaining if not always believable drama from director Sydney Pollack. Sally Field is the Miami reporter who is set up to leak information on a dead-end murder investigation. A sneaky government official (a marvelous, rubber-band-spinning Bob Balaban) provides the information that implies liquor distributor Paul Newman is under investigation. When the story runs, it uncorks a legal quagmire that puts the spotlight on presumably innocent lives. As the lawyers explain, the paper's story is accurate, even though it may be untrue. The details of the story are sharply drawn by first-time screenwriter and former reporter Kurt Luedtke (who later went on to win an Oscar scripting Pollack's Out of Africa); the film could be used in a Media Ethics 101 class. Newman secretly counterattacks in a clever plot to derail the process that quickly encompasses his jittery friend (Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon). Field's continuing ethical gaps--including falling in love with her subject--stretch the film's credibility. Then again, who wouldn't fall for Paul Newman in the Florida sun? --Doug Thomas
The Crucible

20th Century Fox
The Shawshank Redemption (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Castle Rock

When this popular prison drama was released in 1994, some critics complained that the movie was too long (142 minutes) to sustain its story. Those complaints miss the point, because the passage of time is crucial to this story about patience, the squeaky wheels of justice, and the growth of a life-long friendship. Only when the film reaches its final, emotionally satisfying scene do you fully understand why writer-director Frank Darabont (adapting a novella by Stephen King) allows the story to unfold at its necessary pace, and the effect is dramatically rewarding. Tim Robbins plays a banker named Andy who's sent to Shawshank Prison on a murder charge, but as he gets to know a life-term prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman), we realize there's reason to believe the banker's crime was justifiable. We also realize that Andy's calm, quiet exterior hides a great reserve of patience and fortitude, and Red comes to admire this mild-mannered man who first struck him as weak and unfit for prison life. So it is that The Shawshank Redemption builds considerable impact as a prison drama that defies the conventions of the genre (violence, brutality, riots) to illustrate its theme of faith, friendship, and survival. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, it's a remarkable film that signaled the arrival of a promising new filmmaker--a film that many movie lovers count among their all-time favorites. --Jeff Shannon
Dangerous Beauty

Warner Home Video

Although it was unfortunately ignored during its brief theatrical release, this sumptuously seductive production is that rarest of cinematic breeds, the (barely) respectable guilty pleasure. Combining historical fact with hysterical anachronisms of language and mannerism, it's been tailored for maximum contemporary appeal but maintains a lush, romantic feel for its factual 16th-century tale of Venetian love, lust, and political repression. Catherine McCormack (Mel Gibson's ill-fated bride in Braveheart) delivers a star-making performance as the "dangerous beauty" who becomes a skillful courtesan to pursue her forbidden love for a dashing Venetian senator (Rufus Sewell). It's all rather silly in a high-toned fashion, and the film turns dour when the church intervenes with a Scarlet Letter-like papal inquest. But the movie's joyously ribald vitality is utterly irresistible, and the casting of McCormack with Jaqueline Bisset (as her mother and courtesan mentor) is a stroke of pure genius. Merchant-Ivory would've made a smarter film from this material, but it probably wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. --Jeff Shannon
Disclosure

Warner Home Video

Michael Crichton's bestselling novel was both a high-tech thriller and source of controversy with its hot-button plot about a man's charge of sexual harassment against a female colleague and former lover. The movie, directed by Barry Levinson, turned these issues into a prurient thriller gussied up in glossy production values, virtual reality computer graphics, and steamy sex between Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. Having cornered the market on roles for men whose brains are located south of their waistline, Douglas is well cast as the computer-industry guy who loses a plush promotion to the opportunistic Moore, and he's perfected the expression of paranoid panic. If you don't think about it too much, this is one of those films that can draw you into its manipulative web and really grab your attention. Disclosure is more entertaining than thought provoking (because the filmmakers basically danced around the story's potential controversy), but there's enough star power and visual glitz to make this an enjoyable ride. --Jeff Shannon
Call Northside 777 (Fox Film Noir)

20th Century Fox

The postwar vogue for documentary-style realism, prompted by The March of Time and the critical success of Roberto Rossellini's Open City, cross bred with film noir to create a compelling strain of crime films; this is one of the most low-key and credible, based on the true story of a Chicago reporter (James Stewart) who became convinced of the innocence of a death-row inmate (Richard Conte). Director Henry Hathaway (whose Kiss of Death started the trend) stages the action on the actual Chicago locations, providing a fascinating documentary record of an underfilmed metropolis (the convict's mother is a washerwoman at the Wrigley Building), and leads his cast to appropriately restrained, naturalistic performances. Stewart is just beginning to explore his newfound, postwar maturity here, and there's an undercurrent of obsessiveness in his performance that anticipates the haunted figures he would soon be playing for Anthony Mann and Alfred Hitchcock. --Dave Kehr
The Laramie Project

Hbo Home Video
Papillon

Warner Home Video
The Hurricane

Universal Studios
In the Name of the Father

Universal Studios

Based on a true story, this rousing and tough-minded film details British overzealousness in prosecuting an IRA bombing in the 1970s. Grabbing up a pair of small-time thieves (Daniel Day-Lewis and John Lynch) and their families, the government concocts a conspiracy case against them and tosses them all in jail. Until then, Day-Lewis has been a ne'er-do-well, an apolitical goof looking for a quick score. But confronted with the toughness of his own father (Pete Postlethwaite) in the face of British torture, he begins to realize just what the stakes are. In the Name of the Father is at times grueling and never less than compelling, with a complex performance by Day-Lewis and a strong one by Emma Thompson, as the lawyer who finally cracks through the British obstructions to the truth. --Marshall Fine
Brokedown Palace

20th Century Fox
Leave Her to Heaven

20th Century Fox
The Spitfire Grill

Turner Home Ent

This well-acted drama won the Audience award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, causing a festival ruckus when several distributors entered a bidding war in response to the movie's positive buzz. When the movie was finally released, audience and critical response provided a sudden reality check: the movie's good to a point, but hardly worth the fuss it received at Sundance. Packing a miniseries' worth of melodrama into 117 minutes, the story centers on a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliott) who served prison time for manslaughter and arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of beginning a new life. She works as a waitress in the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and precious little tolerance for the grill's regular customers, who cast their suspicions on Percy's mysterious past. The plot unfolds when Hannah holds a $100-per-entry essay contest to find a new owner for the grill. There's ample mystery surrounding the collected money, a local hermit who's really Hannah's shell-shocked Vietnam veteran son, and circumstances that lead the locals to adopt a lynch-mob mentality at Percy's expense. By the time Percy is nearly drowning in a raging river, The Spitfire Grill has taken its melodrama a few steps 'round the bend. Fine acting is the movie's saving grace, however, and newcomer Alison Elliott anchors The Spitfire Grill with a subtle, emotionally involving performance. Thanks to Elliott and Burstyn, you don't have to feel too guilty if you find yourself reaching for a Kleenex as the closing credits roll. --Jeff Shannon
Three Sovereigns for Sarah

PBS (Direct)
An Innocent Man

Walt Disney Video

Tom Selleck (THREE MEN AND A BABY) turns in a riveting performance as Jimmie Rainwood, an average citizen whose life becomes a living nightmare when he's framed by a pair of crooked cops and sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. With his life torn apart, Rainwood swears revenge, vowing to fight back and deliver justice to the dishonest cops who set him up -- no matter what the price! Ultimately, Rainwood risks everything to recapture his normal life, and prove once and for all that he is an innocent man!
The Life of David Gale (Widescreen Edition)

Universal Studios

Kevin Spacey (American Beauty) plays David Gale, a brilliant but hard-drinking anti-death penalty crusader on death row for a rape and murder that he claims he didn't commit. The victim of the crime is Gale's close friend and anti-death penalty colleague (Laura Linney, You Can Count On Me), so Gale argues that he's been set up to discredit the cause. Committed journalist Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet, Titanic) takes it upon herself to figure the whole thing out--and so we follow her through a ridiculous plot full of supposedly shocking twists that are telegraphed far in advance and make very little sense when they arrive. The overwritten script tries to cover too many hot-button issues and gives Spacey way too many showy scenes where he gets to be passionate and caring, which is creepier than his psychopath roles in The Usual Suspects and Seven. --Bret Fetzer
A Cry in the Dark

Warner Home Video
Danielle Steel's Now & Forever

Trinity Home Ent

Jessie and Ian Clark - theirs was a love to last. But now they must struggle to save their marriage when Ian is unfairly sent to prison. It's a captivating and powerful drama as can only be woven by Danielle Steele.System Requirements:Running Time 89 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 692865527022 Manufacturer No: T-5270
American Gigolo

Paramount Home Video
The Shawshank Redemption

Castle Rock