Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy Theory (1997) is about a New York taxi driver. Jerry tells every passenger a conspiracy theory and keeps everything at home in padlocked containers. He is fixated on a lawyer at the Justice Department, and one of his theories turns out to be true. The idea is good: a man says hundreds of wrong things, and one of them is right enough to get him killed. The problem is that he does not know which one. Richard Donner directed. Mel Gibson plays Jerry, Julia Roberts the lawyer, and Patrick Stewart the doctor looking for him. The best detail is Jerry's compulsion around Salinger. He cannot see a copy of The Catcher in the Rye without buying it, and he has dozens at home, an oblique nod to the book's real world association with assassins. It cost 75 million dollars and grossed around 137 million worldwide. It runs 135 minutes. Good for: nineties thrillers, paranoia, and Gibson and Roberts. Less good for: at 135 minutes the middle sags badly. The romance undercuts the tension. Using mental illness as both a joke and a real threat plays badly now.