Malice (1993)

By CinemaSerf

Despite the fairly formidable cast here, this really does smack of an over-scored and weakly written late night television movie. It all centres around the happily wed "Andy" (Bill Pullman) and "Tracy" (Nicole Kidman) who are missing just one thing in their lives - a child. When she is suddenly rushed to hospital and diagnosed with a necrotic ovary by the long term friend of "Andy" and slightly arrogant surgeon "Jed" (Alex Baldwin) he carries out a surgery that changes their lives for ever. Turns out this operation wasn't necessary and the surgeon is accused at the subsequent tribunal of having a "God Syndrome"! As the film now progresses we discover a web of lies, deceit, cheating, sex and murder - all of which suggest that "Jed" is not the upstanding physician that his medical peers think he is, and that perhaps he is not working alone to fleece the insurers of some $20 millions due after the botched procedure. The story itself it quite a complex and characterful one, with plenty of twists, turns and perilously placed hypodermic needles, but I found neither Baldwin nor Pullman really exuded much personality and the equally unremarkable Kidman was left to do just a little bit too much of the heavy lifting by herself. At times, it is quite tautly directed but it's got loads and loads of unnecessary dialogue and it felt a bit stodgy at times, too. Maybe it's just time that hasn't been kind to this mystery, but by the conclusion I didn't really care about any of them.