Kevin Calhoun (John Cusack) is a loyal deputy mayor who admires Mayor John Pappas (Al Pacino) of NYC. He is ambitious and a real operator. A simple day gets turn on its head when off-duty police detective Eddie Santos meets with Tino Zapatti nephew of a mob boss. They get into a shootout which kills them and a 6 six year boy. There are questions about Santos and police lawyer Marybeth Cogan (Bridget Fonda) defends his name. There is also a question about a light sentence headed down on Zapatti by Judge Walter Stern (Martin Landau) who is an old friend of the mayor. Kevin has to fight to uncover the truth which includes crooked politician Frank Anselmo (Danny Aiello).

It's a bit scattered with lots of characters all with their own agendas. It has a lot of great scenes with Al Pacino as the all-knowing mayor. Cusack is also great as the idealistic operator. It's a good sprawling political thriller. I love all the backroom talks, the glad-handing, the political deals, the crooked politicians and the underhanded maneuvers. It's a fine political drama.

This is one of the best acted political films you will see.

At the beginning you get a good idea of some of the wheeling and dealing the local politicians do just to get votes and keep various factions satisfied.

There are four writers credited with the screenplay and three of those are recognised top drawer writers.

It is obvious that the film has gone through various manifestations, gestations, rewrites and conceptual readjustments before a final, locked script emerged.

The movie dealing with a shooting that leaves a cop dead as well as an innocent child sets off a chain of events that leads to political skulduggery.

While others might find the film hard going, even dense, there is no denying the quality of the acting.

This is one of the best crime-drama movies during the late 1990s. It was filled with a great cast, a powerful storyline, and many of the players involved gave great performances. Pacino was great; he should have been nominated for something. John Cusack was good too, as long as the viewer doesn't mind his Louuu-siana accent. He may come off as annoying if you can't stand this dialect. The way that Pacino's character interacted with Cusack's character was believable, dramatic, and slightly comical at times. Danny Aiello was superb as always. David Paymer was great in a supporting role. Bridget Fonda was good but not memorable. There were times when this picture mentioned so many characters, probably too many. It may take a second viewing to remember, "which Zapatti was which?" After so many cross-references, one has to stop and think just to recap. The ending didn't have a lot of sting. It was built up for so long and then was a bit of a letdown. This was one of the few problems with the film. Since the movie wasn't billed as a "huge, blockbuster" big screen hit, it made some forget that this movie even existed. Pacino and Aiello were great but the film's lack of "splash" in the theaters may have accounted for no nominations. It was semi-successful in the home market, and viewers are still learning that this title is out there. Made in 1996, it still stands up today and will remain popular for many years to come.

So, make yourself some lemon pudding (you'll see) and see this movie!