Andy Safian (Bill Pullman) is the Associate Dean at a local college. A serial rapist attacks a student and the new hot-shot brash doctor Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin) saves her life. Andy realizes that Jed is a popular former high school classmate. Andy's wife Tracy (Nicole Kidman) is a children school teacher and his former student. Andy rents out their third floor to Jed but he's a bad tenant. Andy finds the dead body of student Paula Bell (Gwyneth Paltrow) and detective Dana Harris (Bebe Neuwirth) sees him as a suspect despite being his friend. Tracy suffers a rupture of an ovarian cyst. A drunk Jed operates and mistakenly takes out both ovaries as well as causing a miscarriage. Tracy blames Andy for allowing it to happen as she sues Jed.
The movie is overloaded with red herring, blind twist and subplots where a serial killer actually dead ends to nothing but a random guy. At some point, I wonder what this movie is really about. It has so much plot that it sinks under its own weight. It may hurt Aaron Sorkin physically but he needed to simplify the story. Alec Baldwin is chewing up the dialog and is a full-on arrogant douche. In a simple story about Jed, that would be a powerful scene. However it becomes just another big writing scene in a movie full of wild writing.
The movie is overloaded with red herring, blind twist and subplots where a serial killer actually dead ends to nothing but a random guy. At some point, I wonder what this movie is really about. It has so much plot that it sinks under its own weight. It may hurt Aaron Sorkin physically but he needed to simplify the story. Alec Baldwin is chewing up the dialog and is a full-on arrogant douche. In a simple story about Jed, that would be a powerful scene. However it becomes just another big writing scene in a movie full of wild writing.