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I can't improve on the first sentence from W.Corse's excellent 2/3/05 review:"Absence of Malice is one of my all-time favorites, and the first "older" movie that I grabbed when it was finally released on DVD. In my opinion this is one film that should be required viewing for every journalism major in the USA. "Some of other reviewers' comments make my eyes cross.(1) The movie is "slow"? (Not if you're paying attention to Paul Newman's brick-by-brick implementation of an utterly brilliant revenge.)(2) Sally Fields doesn't look too good? (I think she looks better in this film than she's ever looked.)(3) The "attraction" between Newman/Field is silly/implausible/the film's weak spot? (I throw up my hands in despair. The scenes with these two are some of the best written/best acted you'll ever see: the uneasy tentativeness, attraction sparring with distrust. Is Newman using Fields? Fields using Newman? Both? Neither? I'm still not sure.)One reviewer called it the ultimate "get even" story, and--along w/The Shawshank Redemption- it is just that. The scenes of the final hearing, Wilfred Brimley presiding, belong on the short list of Great Movie Denouements.The media pretty much ignored it when it came out (go figure :o). It was a little before its time, but it will outlast them all. |