Absolute Power

Directed By: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn, Dennis Haysbert, Judy Davis, E.G. Marshall, and Melora Hardin

The Film ***½

In Absolute Power Clint Eastwood play's a highly skilled and experienced burglar named Luther Whitney who lives in the Washington DC area. Luther breaks into the home of the wealthy and powerful Walter Sullivan (Marshall), and winds up witnessing the murder of Sullivan's daughter (Hardin) as well as attempts to clean up the crime scene. Complicating matters is the fact that the prime players in the murder and cover-up conspiracy, are the President of the United States (Hackman), his Chief of Staff (Davis), and two Secret Service agents, one somewhat reluctant (Glenn) and one very enthusiastic (Haysbert). Once the conspirators discover that someone may have witnessed their crime, they become determined to pin the murder on him, kill him, or preferably both. Luther's years of experience at eluding authorities make him unexpectedly hard to catch. Meanwhile, an honest homicide detective (Harris) begins to suspect he is being played by the Secret Service, and brings Luther's estranged daughter (Linney) into the case to try to find him and determine the truth.

Absolute Power is one of the better Clint Eastwood films he directed during the period between 1995's The Bridges of Madison County and 2003's Mystic River when he seemed to be focusing on modestly ambitious commercial films (with the noted exception of an "ambitious misfire" adaptation of the popular novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). The film's primary asset is its uniformly outstanding cast, top-lined by Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and Ed Harris, with even key supporting roles filled out by the likes of Laura Linney, Judy Davis, Scott Glenn, and E.G. Marshall. All of these actors are capable of bringing something interesting to even the most straightforward of scenes, with Ed Harris in particular seeming to go the extra mile to infuse his fairly stock homicide detective with some real humanity. Other than the film's two pivotal suspense sequences: the burglary/murder at the film's opening and a broad daylight assassination attempt at the film's center, all of its most memorable moments center around scenes between Harris and Eastwood or Harris and Linney.

Unfortunately, screen writer William Goldman was not nearly as interested in the supporting characters as the actors who played them. While the relationship between Luther and his daughter is well-developed and one of the best things about the film, most of the rest of the characters are written as pretty stock villains and/or patsies. Gene Hackman's twisted egomaniacal President suffers by comparison to a more complex and interesting role he played ten years earlier as a Secretary of Defense covering up a murder under the false guise of national security in No Way Out. Judy Davis' Chief of Staff is required to make so many dumb mistakes that she ultimately comes across as a weak nemesis for Eastwood's experienced thief.

Goldman's adaptation of David Baldacci's novel takes bold liberties, including completely deleting the book's main character, but he does not come up with a plausible reason for the conclusion of the film to play out as neatly as it does. Eastwood's direction and acting come close to selling it, particularly during a scene where he expresses contempt for The President's hypocrisy on a televised speech, but the more one dwells on the film's plot, the more holes become apparent.

The Video ***

Video is presented via a 1080p VC-1 encoding letterboxed to the film's original aspect ratio of 2.4:1. As was common with most of the films shot by Jack Green for Eastwood in the late 80s and 90s, the cinematography is dark and grainy. Viewers upgrading from the standard definition version of the film can expect to see improved compression and better resolved film grain, but due to the softness of the image, will not see a tremendous increase in detail. I am not familiar enough with the film to know whether any more detail could be harvested from the film elements, but the general softness of this presentation and what appear to be some minor issues with the compression make it something short of a high-definition show piece.

Trivia note: Even though they do not have any scenes together in the film, fans of the TV series 24 will no doubt get a kick out of seeing Dennis Haysbert and Penny Johnson Jerald appear in supporting roles in this political thriller. Four years later they would play President David and First Lady Sherry Palmer on the popular TV series

The Audio ****

The DTS-HD MA track reproduces the theatrical mix well for a near-field listening environment. The mix uses the surround field subtly but effectively, placing bits of score and sound effects in the rear channels to enhance some of the more suspenseful scenes such as the burglary at the film's opening, and otherwise generally providing ambience. The primary beneficiary of the lossless encoding is Lennie Niehaus' score. Alternate 640kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are presented in French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Castellano). An alternate Dolby Digital 2.0 track is presented in Spanish (Latin).

The Extras ½

No special features are included on the disc.

Packaging

The disc is enclosed in a standard Blu-ray case with no inserts. It is authored in a straightforward manner with no

Summary ***½

Absolute Power is a diverting but not entirely satisfying thriller set in the corridors of power in Washington DC. A screenplay full of holes is redeemed by a handful of good sequences and a uniformly excellent cast. It is presented on Blu-ray with a surprisingly soft and grainy transfer with what appear to be some minor compression issues. Audio is courtesy of a subtle yet effective 5.1 mix presented as lossless DTS-HD MA. The release is bare bones with no extras.