Amazon.com video review:
This complex 1996 drama directed by Harold Becker (Sea of Love)
attempts to explore big-city corruption and the flexibility of what's
right and wrong in the political arena. John Cusack (Say Anything)
plays the senior aide to mayor John Pappas (Al Pacino), a popular and
seasoned politician whose administration is threatened when what seems
to be an accidental shooting of a child reveals a nest of corruption
and lifelong personal debts that tests Cusack's loyalty to the man he
thought he knew. Pacino turns in a finely textured performance as a
man who has his own lofty ideals, but whose pragmatism sets in motion
a series of events with tragic results. Cusack admirably captures the
essence of someone polished and savvy at his job who must cope with
fundamental disillusionment. This political thriller suffers at times
from a lack of focus, but still offers an insightful and poignant
treatise on the quagmire of politics in the modern age and the human
toll it sometimes exacts. --Robert Lane
