Review of Conspiracy Theory (1997) by Filipeneto — 04 Jul 2020

This film is strange, as it seems to go in so many directions that it is going nowhere. Anyway, and despite a weak and little intriguing start, it revealed to be improving and captivating my attention over time.

The film is based on Jerry Fletcher, a taxi driver obsessed with government conspiracies, who runs an insignificant subscription periodical, where he shares his ideas, and has an obsessive passion for Alice Sutton, a government official he often visits. One day he is caught and tortured, which indicates that someone took some of his ideas seriously, but Alice realizes that something really may have happened to that man, which leads her to try to help him.

The film is ultimately average. It starts slowly, in an uninteresting way and takes its time to develop, but it was necessary to understand what would come next. For me, things only started to get interesting when the main character was caught and tortured. At about two hours and fifteen minutes, it is an excessively long film for the content it presents, and has so many twists and turns that it can leave the audience confused and without interest in what they are watching. Another thing that caught my attention was the similarity with the film "The Pelican Brief", not only due to the participation of the same main actress, but also due to the similarity of the story told.

The cast is dominated by two central names: Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Both collaborate well together, although I was left with the feeling that there was little chemistry for a romantic couple. Gibson looked more like an obsessed maniac than a man in love. In fact, Gibson doesn't seem to know how far his character's sanity goes and his performance ends up reflecting that, with many exaggerations and a lack of psychological depth. Roberts is good enough in a very psychologically underdeveloped character. As this is an obsessive and paranoid thriller, it would have been interesting to see these two characters with more psychological wealth and less appearance, but these are scriptwriter mistakes. Finally, a word to Patrick Stewart, in a discreet performance that seemed effective.

It is not a film that stands out due to technical requirements or production values, having a regular cinematography. Some scenarios, like Fletcher's house, were very well designed and the special effects are good.