THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT (65)

Directed by: Milos Forman

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton

The Pitch: A biography of the eponymous Flynt - publisher of porno mag "Hustler", brief born-again Christian, wheelchair-bound by a would-be assassin's bullet, unlikely warrior for the First Amendment.

Theo Sez: A film of two halves. The first hour or so is fatally clunky, lumbering through the familiar tale of a successful business gradually taking off and veritably groaning under the weight of its message-mongering (not least because those opposed to the message are portrayed - in scenes like the moralistic audience secretly fascinated by the porn mags it's condemning - as clueless and hypocritical); while, stylistically, Forman's dull matter-of-factness stifles any visual creativity (even his attempt at a PARALLAX VIEW-like montage feels faintly ludicrous in this context). It reaches its nadir in the half-baked Christian scenes - then, suddenly, is transformed as its hero is paralysed and launches against the world, in crazy scattershot bursts, the manic energy previously channelled into his fearsome libido (though the film, ever cautious and conventional, doesn't explicitly make the connection). It becomes a ragged celebration of pure goofiness, these writers proving (as in ED WOOD) that the heart of comedy is obsessive behaviour and delighting in the bizarre situations created by Flynt's determination to be himself, undercutting the director's earnest attempts to make a First Amendment movie with a looser, more playful sensibility (and, again as in ED WOOD, a strangely lurching, unpredictable narrative). Scene by scene it still isn't much of a movie but the concept is interesting, viewing its hero as the archetypal American capitalist (even decking out the opening title in red-white-and-blue) out "to make an honest buck", then gradually politicising him, so that by the climax it's almost like he's finally outgrown himself - he stays on the sidelines, letting his lawyer (Norton, the thinking man's Alan Ruck) argue the (surprisingly intelligent) debate on freedom of speech. In many ways it could have been called "Larry Flynt vs. Himself" - though Harrelson, in a passionate and magnetic performance, makes the character so vividly alive (and sympathetic) it's all too easy to see instead the same whitewashed hagiography as the film's many detractors.