| Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 16, 1996 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
17
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
|
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Critic Reviews
A dynamic political drama with superior acting and wide significance. The competing forces of city governance have rarely been portrayed with such immediacy and incisiveness. [17 Feb 1996]
City Hall also gives us a political drama with engaging moral and ethical dimensions. The movie is a welcome change from the fluff of "The American President" and the self-indulgent freak show that was "Nixon." [16 Feb 1996, p.44]
Pacino, Cusack and Aiello are fascinating to observe, playing three sides of the same political coin, but the whole thing winds up as meaningless as a concession speech by Phil Gramm. [16 Feb 1996, p.5]
The more Pacino overplays, the more Cusack underplays, which makes for a fascinating contrast in acting styles. True, Cusack's dialect is more "Louie, Louie" than Louisiana, but he projects such moral spotlessness that none of the film's cynicism can soil him. That's acting. [16 Feb 1996, p.03]
FOR about an hour, this movie is like a smooth ride with a good cabbie through the winding streets of deepest lower Manhattan. It's a fascinating, disturbing, at times exhilarating look at the way politics work in a big city, and you better pay attention or you'll miss something...Then, something happens, and it's like being lost on some triple-decker expressway interchange with no idea of how to get home. I think the problem is that there were too many writers with too many different ideas of what they wanted to tell, and the result is it eventually takes a wrong turn into an emotional and intellectual muddle...That first hour is so terrific, with minor exceptions, and the cast is so good, that "City Hall" is still well worth seeing, but ultimately it may leave you with the empty feeling of lost opportunities. [16 Feb 1996, p.3E]
City Hall is more Cusack's movie than Pacino's, and he gives a more interesting performance. Cusack never reveals himself right away: With his watchful eyes and tight lips, he seems to be deciding whether he can trust the audience with his deepest thoughts. He warms up thoroughly in this Jimmy Stewart-like role, though he never gets a handle on a Louisiana accent. (Calhoun couldn't have come from Chicago, like Cusack?)[16 Feb 1996, p.1E]
Ultimately, City Hall is more evidence for the contention that the best movies these days are made from novels in which the basic story has been well worked out by non-Hollywood personnel. The gaggle of high-priced writers who toiled on this script seem to have four different ideas of where they were going, and even what their movie is about. [16 Feb 1996]
Despite the presence of three top-line actors and a fine supporting cast, City Hall never lives up to its promise. There's too little grit and too much predictability, and even the central character, Calhoun, is never better than half-developed. Director Harold Becker (Sea of Love, Malice) keeps City Hall well-paced, so boredom never threatens. Even so, as political thrillers go, this one stands below the likes of even Kevin Costner's No Way Out, and isn't close to the same category as All the President's Men. There's not enough substance or energy here to warrant more than a lukewarm recommendation.
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