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the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

From the vantage point of 2017 and the predominant theme of 'fake news' in the media, this movie is a perfect candidate to expose how a nothing story could blow up in a reporter's face and lead to the unintended consequence of someone committing suicide. After all, it's not so much if a story is true or not, but the seriousness of the charge that needs to be investigated. The whole thing made my blood boil when it was revealed that Teresa Perrone (Melinda Dillon) killed herself because she told the truth to reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) and it wound up front page news. One has to wonder about the real life consequences inflicted by sleazy journalists just to get a scoop.But at least Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman) gets his measure of revenge, if not complete vindication for just going about his business day to day, having the unfortunate circumstance of being related to a former mob boss. I thought it was pretty slick the way he said "Prove it" to sleazebag Assistant D.A. Rosen (Bob Balaban) who tried to corner him on a bribery charge. Wilford Brimley was great in that scene in a limited appearance as Assistant Attorney General Wells. You knew he would go the extra mile if he had to, to get the goods on someone, anyone. Quinn (Don Hood) and Rosen both got what they deserved.What didn't work for me in the story was the romantic angle played out between Gallagher and Carter. One could argue that Gallagher was stringing her along to find out who was running the scam investigation, but he didn't have to take her to bed to do it. The idea that they could get along as a couple bothered me the rest of the picture until of course, the whole thing blew up in the law office scene. That the film makers had to tease it again at the very end was a disservice to both characters, they should have left well enough alone.One final thought as it relates to the Perrone suicide. It got me wondering what the Catholic Church's position is on performing a burial service for someone who killed themselves. Though the official position maintains that suicide is a mortal sin, thereby disqualifying a church service, there is a degree of leniency in the Catechism that states that "grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide" (CCC #2282). I had a sense that that might be the case, but I never ran across a situation like that myself. I always find it interesting when a movie sends me off to research something that came up in the story line like that. Now I know.

That is not the best of all films about crime in Miami: we are still a long way from Dexter. There is no real suspense since the person who disappeared six months earlier is not found and the person responsible for his disappearance is not identified either. In fact we have a completely different film than a real criminal investigation.Some police force, or rather one person, a prosecutor, using that police force decides to target a man who apparently has nothing to do with any real crime, just because his father was a mafia bootlegger, so out of spite and with the intend to . . . and that's just the point: reveal a criminal? But Mr. policeman is acting on a hunch, not real evidence and then later on even without the necessary warrant to tap the phones of the concerned person. So he leaks a file in the first part of this investigation, and then his direct subordinate leaks the file in the second part of the investigation that has actually become totally illegal after the DA had declared it closedIn that net a 34 year old journalist finds herself trapped between hurting people and promoting her career, under the guidance of an editor who will get her off the case when the department of justice gets his big nose in the imbroglio. She hurts a lot of people actually. She even causes the suicide of one person. And that person had told her clearly enough that she couldn't take the publicity of her abortion. But she quoted her name nevertheless. The man who is targeted just plays back and settles his own accounts with the DA and the police force that is concerned here. He manages to ruin the reputation of the DA and to ruin the career of the cop. And then he sells his house, and business I guess, and sails to the North East, leaving the girl behind and with no promise that he would answer if she wrote and no request on her part for him to write.The acting is OK but the plot is slightly easy and the absence of malice is definitely not true of the cop who wants to hurt the man, Michael Gallagher by the way, out of pure vanity; nor of Gallagher once he decides to settle these accounts. The only one who has no intent to hurt anyone is the poor journalist but she is absolutely naïve and unconscious since she causes one suicide. Irresponsible, it is called in my book of ethics.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman) is a upstanding liquor wholesaler in Miami. His late father was a local gangster and so is his uncle Malderone (Luther Adler). The Strike Force headed by Elliott Rosen (Bob Balaban) leaks a story to reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) that Michael is under investigation for Longshoremen union boss Joseph Diaz's disappearance. The paper's lawyer declares that the truth is secondary as long as there is an Absence of Malice. Soon Michael is struggling with the union refusing to work for him. He has an alibi but he refuses to use it. He had accompanied Teresa Peronne (Melinda Dillon) to get an abortion in Atlanta. Megan writes about the story and Teresa commits suicide. Megan breaks down and tells Michael the source of her original story.It's an interesting take on the damage of reporting of leaks. It's great to see the news media not put on a pedestal. There is a lot of truth in this. It is normal operations for everybody today. It is the counter argument to 'All the President's Men'. It does take a few unlikely turns but it doesn't go too far. I don't really buy the entire reversal of fortunes. Director Sydney Pollack does a capable job. I do wish he brings a grittier sensibility. Also the oversexualized Sally Field feels very awkward. And in the end, the movie leaves the murder unanswered.

This is a film about the power of the press. Absence Of Malice is a legal drama that wherein Sally Field stars as Megan, an ambitious newspaper reporter who, based on information from FBI investigator Rosen, played by Bob Balaban, writes a scathing article that implicates Gallagher, a reclusive business-owner played by Paul Newman, in the recent disappearance of a labor leader. When Gallagher confronts Megan and sets her straight, the two team together to prove his innocence and have a few romantic interludes along the way.The film also features Wilford Brimley and Melinda Dillon as part of the supporting cast.The screenplay was written by Kurt Luedtke and David Rayfiel; and it was directed by Sydney Pollack.Although the it has a talented cast,screenwriter and director,it has resulted into an uneven film feature especially when presenting the press as somewhat immoral and unethical.That is basically true especially with the Sally Field character,Megan.But nevertheless,the performances of the stars were great especially Paul Newman,who was worthy of an Oscar nomination.And also,the movie isn't short of entertainment.