.co.uk

I thought the marketing campaign sold the film pretty well: "New York cab driver and conspiracy buff Jerry Fletcher knows about the secret movers, shakers and assassins who really control things." Because of such, I predicted Conspiracy Theory being a non-too-original, but at least fast-paced and entertaining, cat 'n' mouse thriller.

The film opens with a great scene involving Gibson spouting off various crazy (and not-so-crazy) ideas to his customers, driving his cab throughout the city. Unfortunately, Conspiracy Theory quickly gets bogged down by its sluggish pacing, superfluous characters and very anti-climatic ending.

These problems all seem to stem from the screenplay and director Richard Donner's handling of the project. The raw material does appear intriguing, but when Conspiracy Theory decides to take the "Hollywood-star-must-find-a-Hollywood-love" route then the film becomes ultimately unconvincing.

One day Jerry discovers that one of his theories is true and is kidnapped and tortured by a government psychiatrist (Patrick Stewart). But as the story evolves, we find out that Jerry has an obsession with a Justice Department agent named Alice (Julia Roberts), whom he apparently fell in love with after saving from a mugging. Alice gets dragged into helping Jerry, and the two begin to share various moments developing their relationship together, most notably starring into one another's eyes for several seconds at a time, in a number of very contrived scenes.

Gibson's character does have some great lines ("The Vietnam War was fought over a bet that Howard Hughes lost to Aristotle Onassis"), though because the film prefers to focus on the onscreen relationship between Gibson and Roberts, the interesting elements that were touched upon in the early stages of the film are left neglected, resulting in an undeveloped and unsatisfying storyline.

Donner's action scenes are also disappointing, especially considering that he has the much-respected Lethal Weapon (also starring Gibson) already on his CV. Furthermore, the various attempts at incorporating comedy amidst the political conspiracy that we are supposed to be taking seriously just come across as silly and unfunny.

As far as performances go, Gibson does his best to keep things interesting, and Roberts always seems to be a radiant performer without particularly trying; Stewart also adds a much-needed shot of adrenaline to the picture. But it's the uneasy mix of romance and comedy with politics and action that makes Conspiracy Theory a pretty tedious and forgettable affair, overall.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2010.