"Malice"

As much I�d I love to discuss and analyze Rob Lowe�s Holly Hunter-esque performance in �The Stand,� TV�s biggest mini-series since �Roots,� I am here to talk about one of the trendiest trends in Hollywood, a ditty I like to call The Twist. I�m not talking about any teenybopper, bubble-gum dance move here. I�m talking about The Twist, which is fast becoming the dominant theme in American marketing. Er, um, filmmaking.

The Twist is that old screenwriter�s trick of flip-flopping the course of the plot, bringing together seemingly diverse elements to create a coherent whole and stunning (or annoying) the viewer by connecting unconncectables. When it�s done well, I like it. When it�s done poorly, I like to tuck it away in the Plot Convenience Playhouse file. This week�s pick, the New Line Home Video release �Malice,� does The Twist pretty well and is worth a watch.

Alec Baldwin stars as a cocksure surgeon openly suffering from a God complex. He moves to a small college town near Boston, where he bumps into an old high school chum (Bill Puhlman), who is dean of students on campus. Shortly thereafter he meets the dean�s seemingly puritanical and prissy wife (Nicole Kidman), who, tellingly, works at a day care center. Naturally, the doc moves into the empty room in the couple�s quaint and poorly sound-proofed house, and the fun begins.

The plot is difficult to describe without giving away The Twist. I can, however, divulge some of the ingredients of the recipe without compromising the tastiness. For starters, the dean is worried sick about a rash of brutal murders that has his students scared stupid. Add to his woes his wife�s chronic abdominal pain, which culminates in a hurried trip the ER � the one where their renter wields his scalpel. The wife doesn�t like the good doctor, who shoots local women back to the house for nights of noisy lovemaking. She is no fonder of him after he removes both her ovaries while she�s under the blade.

From here the story develops, albeit slowly and a bit peskily. The abdominal pain subplot brings the film to a screeching halt, overshadowing what we believe to be the main plot, the campus murders. But are the murders the main attraction? Enter The Twist.

Commenting on the creative process, Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap quipped, �It�s such a fine line between clever and stupid.� Kudos to the guitarist for hitting the nail on the head. The Twist should complement a film like its namesake complements a dry martini. The Twist has the power to make a good movie bad, a bad movie good or a good movie better. �Malice� is somewhere between the last two. It is an interesting, mostly well-acted film that, once The Twist comes, keeps you in suspense. However, it comes a bit late in the film, after you have devoted your energies to one plot. For that, it�s faulted.

One thing worth mentioning is Bill Puhlman�s performance. Though he got third billing, his calm, understated presence makes the film. Hell, Baldwins are a dime a dozen these days, and ol� Nicole has not yet come into her own in American cinema. I say give credit where credit is due.

�Malice� does not fall into the Plot Convenience Playhouse category. All the intangibles come together nicely and in a mostly believable manner. The Twist is intricate and devilishly clever; it leaves you guessing, even pissed off. And that�s what a good suspense flick is supposed to do.