“I AM GOD”

By Raymond Benson

It’s a line uttered by Dr. Jed Hill (chillingly played by a young Alec Baldwin), during a deposition in which he defends his surgical skill and knowledge as the things people in chapels really pray to when a loved one is under the knife in the operating room. “I am God,” he says with the kind of arrogance that only an actor like Baldwin can deliver.

Malice, the 1993 thriller directed by Harold Becker (whose previous film was the terrific Sea of Love), was adapted from a story by Aaron Sorkin and Jonas McCord, with a screenplay by Sorkin and Scott Frank. That’s powerhouse writing authorship, and the twisty-turny tale that unfolds on the screen is solid evidence the fact. Despite the rather improbable premise behind the con job that is at the heart of Malice, the picture indeed holds your interest and keeps you guessing.

Although he received third billing, Bill Pullman’s character, Andy Safian, is the protagonist of the piece. Andy is a dean at a local college in New England, newly wed to Tracy (Nicole Kidman). There’s a serial killer running around loose on the campus and targeting coeds, but that turns out to be a befuddling subplot, prompting this reviewer to wonder if perhaps there had been more to it in the early stages of the writing. Nevertheless, it serves as a red herring to the main tale, involving the Safians’ relationship with Dr. Hill, a new tenant in their house. He’s handsome, slick, sexy, and projects trouble from the get-go.

Things get complicated when Tracy must have emergency surgery on her ovaries, and it’s Dr. Hill who is called into the operating room. For the first time in his career, Hill screws up, and Tracy is left infertile. Lawsuits fly, and Tracy also leaves Andy because he gave Hill the go-ahead to perform the operation during a life-and-death time limit. To reveal anything else about the story would involve major spoilers.

Malice is surprisingly enjoyable as a guilty pleasure. The three leads are very good, but there is also fine work from Bebe Neuwirth as the local cop, Peter Gallagher as Tracy’s attorney, Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott in cameos as Tracy’s mother and Dr. Hill’s mentor, respectively, and a very young Gwyneth Paltrow as one of Andy’s college students. Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting-lullaby score augments the proceedings.

Acceptable graininess aside, Kino Lorber’s high definition restoration looks good enough, especially since the cinematography is by the formidable Gordon Willis. It comes with English subtitles for the hearing impaired, but alas, no other supplements except a couple of trailers.

Malice may not be a corker, but the picture exhibits solid mid-level Hollywood filmmaking with up-and-coming talent that would go on to bigger and better things. Worth a look.

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