Mad City . Newcity Chicago . 11-10-97

Mad City

DIRECTED BY: Costa-Gavras, Mr.

REVIEWED: 11-10-97

Costa-Gavras' first movie in six years is a handsomely mounted anecdote, a worthy satire, a charm-filled star vehicle built for two, and an utterly dispensable movie. Kind of sad that people will think they've seen the story before -- and if they've seen Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's acidulous "Ace in the Hole" (aka "The Big Carnival"), they've really seen it. The writers are disingenuous enough to claim they've not remade the still-thriving Wilder's work, yet they name Dustin Hoffman's reporter character "Max Brackett." It's a little supercilious to bow in the direction of a living master you claim not to be ripping off. Hoffman's an oft-busted, slick-on-the-make small-town-California local television reporter always angling to get "back to network," and he lucks onto a dumb misunderstanding at a museum involving recently-fired security guard John Travolta, a shotgun and a rucksack of dynamite. Max blows it up to television size and draws it out for dramatic effect. The stakes escalate. Max's intern, played by Mia Kirschner with her usual supernal teenage glow, becomes a star on her own. Travolta glowers, plays dumb, shares his hopes. Hoffman, in a beautifully modulated, not-too-treacherous performance, is as good as he's been for years. Television news gets all the skewering it deserves. Every plot point is predictable, making the story seem sluggish even as the asides bristle with erudition and umbrage. I liked it. But lacking the sizzle of two other pictures it somewhat resembles -- "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network" -- I'm not sure who'll want to pay pretty pennies to see "Mad City."

--Ray Pride

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