Seen Any Good Tracts Lately?

A TREND for the Nineties is beginning to emerge from Hollywood movies. Actually only a trendlet so far, but it’s growing. The idea is that power corrupts, but—and here we part company with Lord Acton—powerlessness ennobles. Yessir, ennobles, transubstantiates, redeems. In the hands of a St. Francis, much could be done with this idea; in the hands of Hollywood, it turns into hogwash.

Take a thoroughly contemptible film such as Regarding Henry, made by Mike Nichols, no less. We have here a ruthless New York lawyer, Henry, who is beastly to his lovely wife, Sarah, and repressed daughter, Rachel. And not much better to the people he works with (also creepy), including a fellow lawyer, Linda, his mistress. Woe betide the hapless little fellow who becomes the victim of hospital malpractice if Henry represents the hospital: like hope and charity (forget about faith!), justice gets trampled into the mud of acquisitiveness. One night Henry gets shot in the head by a fellow holding up a candy store. Though he survives, his mental powers are gone. Not to worry: the new Franciscanism is about to commence.

JS

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John Simon

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A TREND for the Nineties is beginning to emerge from Hollywood movies. Actually only a trendlet so far, but it’s growing. The idea is that power corrupts, but—and here we part company with Lord Acton—powerlessness ennobles. Yessir, ennobles, transubstantiates, redeems. In the hands of a St. Francis, much could be done with this idea; in the hands of Hollywood, it turns into hogwash.

Take a thoroughly contemptible film such as Regarding Henry, made by Mike Nichols, no less. We have here a ruthless New York lawyer, Henry, who is beastly to his lovely wife, Sarah, and repressed daughter, Rachel. And not much better to the people he works with (also creepy), including a fellow lawyer, Linda, his mistress. Woe betide the hapless little fellow who becomes the victim of hospital malpractice if Henry represents the hospital: like hope and charity (forget about faith!), justice gets trampled into the mud of acquisitiveness. One night Henry gets shot in the head by a fellow holding up a candy store. Though he survives, his mental powers are gone. Not to worry: the new Franciscanism is about to commence.