Conspiracy Theory (1997) Review

Jerry Fletcher is obsessed with conspiracy theories and has them about pretty much everything against the government. Unfortunately for him one of them seems to be true, but can he work out which one is true before it’s too late?

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I think we have to really remember and appreciate just how big it was to have Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts starring opposite each other in this film. Both at the very heights of their fame in the 90s and Roberts very much tried to venture away from the romantic comedy genre. Doing so very well on many different occasions and this thriller is one of them. Gibson is very good in this film and I don’t feel he will get anywhere near enough credit for his crazy off the wall character. Throw in the ever brilliant Patrick Stewart as the bad guy and we certainly have a very underrated film in my opinion.

It offers many twists and turns that we more than need in an action thriller like this. Confusing the viewer and never being fully sure who the good and bad guys really are. Some moments really do create such serious doubt about the intentions from Jerry. Especially when we find out about his obsession with Alice.

Where did this stem from and why did he have the picture on his wall? That is certainly a strange turning point which is difficult to accept. Dr Jonas is a rather evil man and behind some rather sadistic methods of training people. What link does Jerry have to him though? That is certainly the big question. One that Jerry himself cannot actually answer.

Along with the action and plot twists we also get a romance part of the film, which isn’t forced too much and forms a nice break from it all. I like how they change things and Alice does not want to be engaged in a car chase and allows the police to just talk to her, moving away from the expected moments.

I am pretty sure I have seen this film before as you may already know Julia Roberts is one of my all time favourites and if I searched this one must be in my DVD collection! It is currently available to stream on FilmStruck which really does have a truly fantastic selection of films.

I am certainly going to put this in the underrated section due to level of performance and having interesting twists and even points around conspiracy theories. Highlighting that the government could well and truly be behind them!