Sharp writing, acting make ‘Insider’ gripping

In theaters

THE INSIDER. Directed by Michael Mann. Written by Mann and Erich Roth. Running time: 155 minutes. Rated R.

With all of its back-stabbing and back-biting, sudden betrayals and terrific plot twists, Michael Mann’s “The Insider” hits audiences hard with a sharply written story that’s so-well acted, one can almost overlook the film’s inflated running time.

What’s not so easy to ignore is the film’s epic air of self-importance and pretension, which would have run thin had the film not been quite this gripping.

Based on a 1996 Vanity Fair article titled “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Insider” is a big, nasty melodrama that pits corporate whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) and producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) of “60 Minutes” against the formidable powers of Big Tobacco.

The film, which blows no smoke in its attempt to position itself as a contender for next year’s Academy Awards, is fueled with twin barrels of rage — that which it feels toward tobacco companies for making their cigarettes more addictive with extra nicotine, and that which it directs at the suits of CBS for pulling Mike Wallace’s interview with Wigand at the last minute because a crippling lawsuit was feared.

Mann approaches “The Insider” as if it’s an “All the President’s Men” for our time, but it doesn’t deserve that epic treatment; it’s not as if people aren’t aware that tobacco companies will do anything to keep people smoking. But the film’s pace is strong, it’s beautifully shot, and the performances are excellent, particularly Crowe’s, who strikes a perfect balance between rage and fear as he goes public with his damning knowledge — and is issued death threats because of it. Grade: B+

THE BACHELOR. Directed by Gary Sinyor. Written by Steve Cohen. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated PG-13.

The very best moment in Gary Sinyor’s “The Bachelor” doesn’t come when the film ends — although that’s a welcomed moment after such an exasperating film — but when Sinyor recreates a scene from “Seven Chances,” the silent, 1925 Buster Keaton film on which “Bachelor” is based.

The scene is everything this film could have been: total farce that’s great fun to watch. In it, scores of bridal-gowned women race up the hills of San Francisco after Jimmy Shannon (Chris O’Donnell), a boring bachelor who has found himself in a rather remarkable situation: Jimmy has just 27 hours to find a bride. If he can do so, he’ll inherit $100 million. If he can’t, he’ll have to get by on his charm (which means that he’ll probably starve).

The problem with “The Bachelor” isn’t just its rampant overacting from Ed Asner, Peter Ustinov and Hal Holbrook, its twitchy performance from Renee Zellweger as Jimmy’s long-suffering girlfriend, or that its script is severely mired in the past, carrying over plot devices and sight gags that worked in the 1920s and ’30s but which seem oddly out of place here. The film also errs by staking its laughs on Jimmy’s many ex-girlfriends — including Mariah Carey as a fluttery opera singer and Brooke Shields as a desperate socialite, both of whom are so criminally awful, so stiff and obviously uncomfortable in their caricatures, one wants to either throw tomatoes at the screen — or call 911. Grade: D+

Christopher Smith’s reviews appear each Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “News Center 5:30 Today” and “News Center Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on News Center’s statewide “Morning Report.”