Double Feature

November 2008 - Hollywood may soon pay a visit to NEPA. There's word that Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese want to make a movie based on Charles Brandt's book, I Heard You Paint Houses. It's an account of the murder of Jimmy Hoffa, and it's based on interviews with Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, the man who claimed to have done the deed. Old Forge and Pittston, along with Philadelphia, figure prominently in the book. So, don't be surprised if Bobby and Marty pay us a little visit when it' time to start filming.

Scorsese has a small role in 1994's Quiz Show, a PG-13 drama based on the TV quiz show scandal of the 1950s. Ralph Fiennes and Rob Morrow star along with John Turturro, David Paymer and Mira Sorvino. Robert Redford directs.

The movie tells the true story of the scandal surrounding the TV quiz show 21. Turturro plays Herb Stempel, a guy from Queens who's on a winning streak. But the ratings aren't doing so well. When handsome and sophisticated Charles Van Doren (Fiennes) comes along, the producers have Stempel take a dive and they give Van Doren a question they know he can answer. Van Doren knows the fix is in, but he sees his chance to come out of his father's shadow and he grabs it.

Things start unraveling when Stempel asks producer Dan Enright (Paymer) to put him on another show. Enright refuses, so Stempel goes to the DA who convenes a grand jury. All this catches the attention of Congressional lawyer Dick Goodwin (Morrow).

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. It's interesting as a history lesson, but I didn't particularly care about any of the characters.

For a better movie based on a real-life scandal, try Breach. Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney star in this PG-13 fact-based thriller from 2007.

Cooper plays Robert Hanssen who made history as the most damaging spy ever in the FBI. Phillippe is Eric O'Neill who made history of his own as the man who helped to bring down Hanssen in 2001.

O'Neill is a young member of the FBI, working in counterterrorism and working his way up to the rank of agent. Suddenly, he's reassigned to spy on Hanssen, a long-time intelligence agent. On the surface, Hanssen seems like an upstanding patriot. He's a devout Catholic and a devoted family man. O'Neill tells his handler (Linney) that there's nothing there. She finally tells him that they suspect Hanssen has been spying for the Russians and they need to catch him in the act.

Overall review: Loved it! A great cast and a good story build drama even though anyone familiar with recent history knows how it turns out. Cooper is appropriately creepy as the spy, and Phillippe is very good as a man who hopes serving his country doesn't cost him his marriage. Breach focuses on the relationship between Hanssen and O'Neill and how, ultimately, Hanssen made his crucial error despite knowing they were on to him.