Absence of Malice

Investigator Rosen and his team get nowhere with the disappearance of a union figure. Realizing they are stuck they manipulate journalist Megan into making a connection between the case and liquor importer Michael Gallagher, who just happens to be from a not quite clean family background.

In reality, there is nothing that suggests that Michael himself has anything to do with anything but law enforcement's idea is that he could get them some information on the case in exchange for being left alone. Michael Gallagher is rightly pissed off and tries to find his way out of his troubles.

He does actually have a solid alibi for the time of the disappearance, as well, that he does not wish to share. He was in Atlanta with a friend to support her after she had had an abortion. After Megan talks to said friend and - despite being asked not to - uses the abortion story in a news story, the woman commits suicide.

DA Quinn gets involved in the story as well, offering Gallagher that he makes a statement clearing that their investigation in his business brought no result and Gallagher is cleared of any wrongdoing. In exchange, he too expects information on the union figure.

In the end, it all comes to blows with both Rosen and Quinn losing their jobs.

6/10

Ace In the Hole

In June 2007, The Guardian published a list of 1,000 films one must see before dying. Although I do not agree with all of the films featured, the list differs from all the other such compilation, where you basically get the same 1000 films, give or take a few.

Here are some that I have never even heard of. I started watching them a while back and this is as good a time as any to share my thoughts. So, in the upcoming days, weeks and months I will review films that may not be fresh in my memory anymore but appear on the list. Look for the label 'guardian1000' to follow.

Some I simply refuse to watch (nobody can tell me that I simply must watch Ace Ventura before I die and keep a straight face), some I have watched and hated (I will tell you about them), some I have not been able to track down (yet).

The list is alphabetically and the very first must-see film is Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole.

Here is the first I had never heard of before, not being the biggest Billy Wilder fan (or, not yet). I am actually grateful for the suggestion, because this is really good - and a hint of what was to come in journalism (*cough* *cough* Murdoch *cough*).

Kirk Douglas plays a journalist that recently fell from grace with the big newspapers in New York. While holed up in New Mexico, he stumbles upon a story that carries the promise of getting him back on top.

A young man is trapped and hurt inside a local mine and Douglas is the big-shot on location to milk the story for all it's worth. And we know that trapped miners make for good sob stories.

Somewhere amid the town fair-like atmosphere and the profit seekers, Douglas loses any kind of morals he had and delays a rescue mission for the good of the story. Too late he realizes that he has essentially contributed to the miner dying and that's no good because he really needed a happy ending for his orchestrated story.

Billy Wilder himself considered this the best film he'd ever made.

7/10