Absence of Malice (1981)

If you can get past the fashions and haircuts, this is a very smart movie. This is the story of a story. If you are student of journalistic ethics you will find this movie interesting. If you every wonder about the path a story in the news takes with it's twists and turns, this is an impressive peek behind the scenes.

Of course this is back in the day when newspapers were the forefront of investigative journalism so you'll have to imagine what that was like. Imagine also a story where doing the right things is conflicted with doing things right. This is a theme and a lesson that never gets old. Maybe it means now more than in 1981?

Paul Newman was subdued but brilliant as the son of dead gangster trying to outwit the FBI and a federal Justice Dept. task force, and a very nearly great newspaper reporter played by Sally Field. Other faces you will surely recognize are Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, and a very special cameo by Wilford Brimley.

This is a drama of a fairly high order. Pay attention to the details. Understand what is, and is not, happening. Enjoy the ride.

Watch this with someone who want to be a journalist, or a bureaucrat, when they grow up.

Empire Falls

I promise I won't do this very often, but this one is so good, I need to recommend it to you all. And, some of you have asked me privately about other HBO projects, so I figure they are all fair game now. This was an HBO film that went to DVD.

Empire Falls was first a Pulitzer Prize novel by Richard Russo before he did the screenplay. I read the novel in 2002 and have not had a work of fiction toss me through so many different emotions since Les Miserables. There were times when I got so angry reading Empire Falls that I actually tossed the book across the room. Yeah, that's real mature. I know. Either way, I highly recommend both to you.

I'm guessing you won't recognize the name of the director, but I'll bet you know and love some of his work. Fred Schepisi has done a wide range of great movies. Roxanne with Steve Martin. The Russia House with Sean Connery. Fierce Creatures with John Cleese. Barbarosa with Willie Nelson. Fun fascinating stories.

Ed Harris (Enemy at the Gates, A Beautiful Mind, and Gone Baby Gone) leads this top-notch cast. If I start to list them and their work, we'll both be here too long. So let me just mention the main players: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, Paul Newman, Aidan Quinn, Joanne Woodward, Dennis Farina, and William Fichtner. Three or four of those names might motivate you to watch this film. But, all of them in the same story makes for some Hollywood magic.

I you had parents, or if you are a parent, watch this movie.

If you have dreams you've yet to fulfil, watch this movie.

And, watch it with someone you can't afford to lose.