AntiTrust Review

Milo Hoffman, Ryan Phillippe, is a computer nerd. He and his friends, including Teddy, Yee Jee Tso, have organised a start-up company in a garage, and Milo`s girlfriend, Alice, Claire Forlani, is supportive. Milo`s idealistic enough to want to make the world safe for justice and truth, but he puts his ideals on hold when he`s head-hunted by representatives of NURV, a giant software corporation founded by billionaire Gary Winston, Tim Robbins. Though Teddy is appalled at what he sees as a sell-out, Milo and Alice move to NURV headquarters in Portland. Milo starts work for the company, finding a soul-mate in fellow software programmer Lisa, Rachael Leigh Cook. But then Teddy is murdered and Milo begins to suspect that NURV might have a sinister side to it...Peter Howitt, the director of the comedy, SLIDING DOORS, has turned out a workmanlike job of a basically rather silly screenplay with ANTITRUST. As a thriller, the plot has several twists and turns which are unexpected but, in hindsight, far from plausible. The main reason for seeing the film is to enjoy Tim Robbins` gleeful impersonation of the Bill Gates-like Winston, one of the world`s most powerful men whose top-secret company is the unusual setting for this passable nail-biter.Comments from Margaret PomeranzTim Robbins? resemblance to Bill Gates is a bit too disconcertingly obvious but once you get over the similarity of character and situation you can basically sit back and enjoy this cyberspace thriller. And it does have a subtext that goes beyond the computer industry which is why I don?t think the film is as necessarily dated as many others. That greed, that power which is unsatisfiable is one of the scary elements that we live with in the modern world. It?s what?s going to destroy much of local community life in Japan and it?s happening here on a daily basis. So any fantasy where the little guy gets to turn the tables is something I?m quite happy to watch. Tim Robbins is mesmerising, he?s so likeable at moments, so venal at others, just like all those two-faced people you?ve ever met. Ryan Phillippe is fine as the young hero, Claire Forlani unfortunately has no base for her role, as you?ll understand when you see the film. But as an entertainment it works and as a social comment it ventures into the realm of the incredible, but hey, I?d believe anything these days.