Malice

“I have an M.D. from Harvard, I am board certified in cardio-thoracic medicine and trauma surgery, I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever sick at sea. So I ask you; when someone goes into that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn’t miscarry or that their daughter doesn’t bleed to death or that their mother doesn’t suffer acute neural trauma from postoperative shock, who do you think they’re praying to? Now, go ahead and read your Bible, Dennis, and you go to your church, and, with any luck, you might win the annual raffle, but if you’re looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November 17, and he doesn’t like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something: I am God.”

Nothing is quite what it seems. Not with the happy couple of Andy (Bill Pullman) and Tracy (Nicole Kidman). Not with the womanizing alcoholic doctor with delusions of grandeur, Dr. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin). Not with the emergency surgery which leaves Tracy unable to have children and her marriage with Andy in shambles. And not with a serial rapist who is prowling the area.

The screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and Scott Frank gives us a world of mirrors and shadows before slowly peeling away each layer as Andy learns the truth about himself, his unborn child, that fateful night at the hospital, and his wife’s past.

Although Malice isn’t a great definition by anyone’s standards it does hold up as a better than average entry into the thriller/plot-twist genre. And it does has it’s moments. The quote above is taken from my favorite scene in the film where Alec Baldwin’s character delivers the speech in defense against a malpractice suit brought against the hospital. It’s worth the price of the DVD rental by itself.

Baldwin isn’t the only one who performs well here. Pullman provides a terrific guide as a man who slowly realizes how little he truly knows about his life, his wife, and the world around him on his journey to discover the truth and Kidman is just angry and bitchy enough on screen to enjoy. There’s also some nice supporting performances put in by Anne Bancraft as Tracy’s mother, which provides another nice scene about deception and scotch, and Bebe Neuwirth as a cop who investigates Andy for the rapes around town. Close movie watchers may also want to keep an eye out for a young Gwyneth Paltrow in one of her earliest roles as one of the rapist’s victims, and George C. Scott as Dr. Jed’s mentor.

Okay, it’s not a great film, but the writing is far above that of many of these types of films and the performances add layers to the deception and suspense making it actually suspenseful and entertaining. Filled with good actors and good performances, each put in the right role to succeed, the film is a nice surprise and better than it has any right to be.