CONSPIRACY THEORY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: a graphic scene of torture

Rated:

Take one seriously paranoid cab driver, throw him together with a stuffy lawyer, add international intrigue and assassination plots into the mix and you have Conspiracy Theory, an incredibly believable story of sordid pasts, evil intentions and inhumane actions. Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is something of a weirdo in the eye of Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts), with his crazy ideas and unwanted attentions but when he comes up with a fantastic story that ties presidential assassinations with other wide-scheme crimes, eyes are opened to prove that his paranoia is more than a lack of self confidence. Jerry is pulled off the streets to be tortured in an attempt to tell all that he knows and barely escapes with his life, nearly biting the nose off his tormentor and managing to impale himself in the process.

Completely out of his mind due to the drugs that they injected into his system, Jerry holds the police at bay with a stolen revolver and only Alice can convince him to put it down and explain himself. Chained to his hotel bed, he tells a dramatic and seemingly insane story, pleading with her to switch the charts of himself and an evicted bank robber in the next bed, convinced that if she doesn't he's going to be dead by morning. Alice does as much and the next morning the robber turns up dead of a "heart attack."

When the official physiatrist of the CIA, Dr. Jonas (Patrick Stewart), appears at the hospital, Alice realizes with chilling revelation he's Jerry's tormentor. Convinced there's something underhanded going on, she aids her friend in a daring escape from the hospital and begins to investigate. A week before -- only a few days before Jerry's torture -- he sent out his monthly "Conspiracy Theory" newsletter. Now three of the four subscribers are dead. There's something evil creeping through their lives like a wall of blackness threatening to envelope them all. He may have found a tie-in to criminal involvement of high-class assassinations attempts against presidents, congressmen, and senators all over the world. 

Conspiracy Theory is rated R for violence and a graphic torture sequence but missed a PG13 by a hair. Many people are shot and killed; the most graphic scene is a man being impaled in the chest half a dozen times underwater, resulting in a clouding of blood. Miscellaneous characters are threatened with murder and guns play an important role, appearing in the hands of Jerry and Alice as well as the official police, CIA and other government agencies. The torture session is not particularly graphic but cold and terrifying with blinking lights and the fact they taped Jerry's eyes open. People prone to seizures should beware -- the lights flash in rapid succession for a full minute and a half before declining. There's a couple passing references to sex -- one of Jerry's passengers in the cab claims "Love is just a fancy way of saying, 'I want to sleep with you."

There's some language -- the worst being two each of the f-word, GD, Jesus, and one of Christ). Problems aside, it's one of the most incredibly realistic films that's ever come into circulation and had me questioning history more than once. As well as having a good spattering of humor, Conspiracy Theory is an action-packed, suspense monster of special effects and Mission: Impossible instances. For the hard core fan of action and conspiracy only -- those with less amiable stomachs won't be able to take the torture scene.