Risk Review

Ben Madigan, Tom Long, arrives in Sydney from his home in the country and succeeds in getting a job with a large insurance agency. His mentor is John Kreisky, Bryan Brown, a cheerfully cynical and seasoned insurance veteran who observes that the kindly Ben is sincerely sympathetic towards people who are claiming accident insurance. But Kreisky is involved with a beautiful crooked lawyer, Louise Roncoli, Claudia Karvan, in an insurance scam and it isn`t long before Louise has seduced the guillible Tom into joining them in ripping off the company.. The screenplay for Risk, by John Armstrong and Steve Wright, is based on a short story, The Adjuster, by Tracy Kidder, and it feels a bit over-extended as a feature film, despite director Alan White`s smooth craftsmanship. Though for a while the mechanics of the insurance scams are interesting, the film fails to be really involving as the screws tighten towards the end. This is no criticism of the three principle actors, all of whom are excellent, Tom Long showing real leading-man potential as the na?ve Ben, Claudia Karvan a sexy femme fatale as Louise, and Bryan Brown in very top form as the avuncular Kreisky. There`s something a little remote about the film, though, which held me at a remove from the drama.