Dickie is being used by big time developers to clear environmental
hurdles in the way of a planned community on mountain land contaminated
with heavy metals and chemicals. During the making of a TV commercial
at the picturesque Arapahoe Lake, Dickie's fishing line snags the battered
corpse of a Latino illegal laborer. He thought it is a dirty political
trick and his campaign manager draws up a list of his enemies and hires
Grece Seymour's detective agency to investigate the matter. Danny O'Brien,
a disgraced newspaper reporter gets the assignment. He used to be a
fearless reporter but got fired when his newspaper was forced to print
a retraction for a politically savvy story. Rest of the movie follows
him as he contacts the people on Dickie's enemies list, leading him
right into a trail of political corruption as he tries to solves the
murder of the man in the lake.
Some of the interesting characters of the movie are Maria Bello who
plays Nora Allardyce a local journalist who was once involved with Danny
and she sniffs a connection between the body and the politics. Madeleine
Pilager (Daryl Hannah) is Dickie's renegade sister who finds a connection
between the private eye and the campaign manager. Wes Benteen (Kris
Kristofferson) who is a media magnate /developer, lobbyist Chander Tyson
(Billy Zane) and Grace's husband Mort Seymous (David Clennon), are the
desperate people to develop the planned community of Silver City in
and around an old mine.
The veteran storyteller John Sayles creates invariably fascinating
characters to suit his novelistic dialogue. He boldly tell a story that
may be too controversial for other film makers to handle. He is a master
in the art of assembling a large casts and keeping all the characters
well connected. He brilliantly inter connects idealism with reality.
There is no real hero, virtue is not rewarded and crime is not punished.
He successfully portray a corrupt political dynasty. He suck the viewers
into a total corrupt set up played by various characters and at the
same time leave room for the viewers to draw their own conclusion about
the end result of the movie. This is one of his best movies.
Cooper is wonderful as Dickie. Rest of the cast put up an excellent
performance, especially, Daryl Hannah, Danny Huston and Kris Kristofferson.
The movie is worth watching.
We rate this movie Good.
