Take these guidelines with you when you see Malice. They'll help you navigate some of the more convoluted plot points.
Actually, it's not that bad, as thrillers go — even though the story doesn't hold together. The movie has some
nice plot twists, but they don't make much sense when you stop to think about them seriously. And the biggest twist is the easiest to second guess. After all, it happens halfway through the movie, and we know
they've got to kill the remaining footage somehow.
Malice is set in one of those quaint New England college towns where — according to the movies — anything can happen. In this case, a serial rapist is at large. Strangely enough, this subplot has nothing to do with the movie.
Bill Pullman plays a college dean whose, main jobs seem to be lecturing tardy students and complaining to the college police about the campus crime wave. Bebe Neuwirth plays the college police force (well, we don't actually see any other officers). Despite their testy relationship, there's a faint hint of some nerdy spark. This subplot has a little to do with the film.
Nicole Kidman plays Pullman's wife. She seems preposterously sweet, baking cookies and running a day-care center at the local hospital. She must have a lot to do with the movie, because she must be up to something.
Alec Baldwin plays a brilliant, but arrogant, surgeon, who thinks that "god complex" was a med school requirement. He rents a room in Pullman's house and spends his free time chasing naked nurses around
the attic. Mixed into this story are Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott, who play respected, but aging, character actors who really need jobs. They, too, seem to have little to do with the plot.
These are the loosely cemented building blocks of Malice, which weaves an erratic course between a slasher film and several old Barbara Stanwyck flicks. The really amazing thing about it is that, despite its
obviousness, the movie manages to be surprising on occasion.
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