"The Big Brass Ring"

A political thriller directed by George Hickenlooper, whose unexpected death last Saturday at 47 and subsequent November 1, 2010 New York Times obituary by Michael Cieply led me to a number of interesting looking movies he'd directed that I'd never have heard of had he lived.

People shouldn't have to die for me to find out how great they were, is my chronic complaint, but at least once a month I'm introduced to astonishing books, movies, art, music and other productions by people who up to their deaths worked largely under the radar.

But I digress.

This 1999 film boasts a fantastic list of names involved in its production, first and foremost Orson Welles, who wrote the screenplay in the 1980s.

Hickenlooper bought it nearly two decades later and updated it from a story about an independent presidential candidate post-Watergate to a gubernatorial race in the 1990s.

And the cast: William Hurt at his absolute best as the cynical, conflicted candidate William Blake Pellerin with more than one deep, dark, potentially candidacy-ending secret in his past; Miranda Richardson as his independently wealthy alcoholic wife who loathes Hurt's character even as she depends on his success for his happiness; Nigel Hawthorne as a bent, half-rational former senator pulling strings and watching Pellerin jump; Irène Jacob as a news correspondent determined to uncover Pellerin's secrets by any means necessary.

An absorbing and visually striking film.

On Netflix or get your own copy for 23 cents.