CITY HALL (41)

Directed by: Harold Becker

Starring: John Cusack, Al Pacino, Danny Aiello, Bridget Fonda

The Pitch: The young Deputy Mayor of New York uncovers a net of Mafia payoffs and corruption, finally implicating the boss he idolises.

Theo Sez: A missed opportunity. It begins with all the trappings of a major movie - starry cast, A-list talent in all departments, momentous voice-over introducing the story, no opening credits except the title - but by the end it's really no big deal, as everyone concerned seems to have realised (hence its first-quarter, low-expectations release date). It teems with intelligent, allusive dialogue, and the investigative-thriller structure keeps picking up strands that you're sure will be woven into something rich and complicated any moment now - but the moment passes and, instead of taking off, it sputters into a thin, join-the-dots kind of movie. The basic problem is perhaps that the payoff is weak, never unfolding into a despairing statement of ubiquitous corruption as it did in the conspiracy thrillers of the 70s - what's uncovered would cause barely a ripple in the real world of politics. The real story is inside the characters' heads, especially Cusack as the hero-worshipping aide who has his illusions shattered, but it isn't externalised for the audience - it seems shocking to him, but not to us. Indeed, for a film that makes so much of the "grey area" where right and wrong are blurred - even shooting a whole scene in louvred light, alternate strips of light and dark, to make its point - it seems rather strangely surprised to find that politicians are rarely Boy Scouts.