In the middle of committing a crime himself, master thief Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) witnesses a woman being murdered and none other than the President of the United States (Gene Hackman) is involved.

Directed by Eastwood, Absolute Power is a pretty decent and often fun cat and mouse game. As Detective Seth Frank (Ed Harris) looks into the murder he finds that there may have been more than one person in the room when the victim died, and some of them may not have even been the murderer. Meanwhile the members of the Secret Service and the Chief of Staff (Judy Davis) who were there that night are looking into who could’ve witnessed the crime and are doing everything in their power to protect themselves and the President.

One of the most interesting scenes was between Detective Frank and Luther. Frank goes to Luther to try and figure out if he was involved with the murder and to learn how a thief would get in the home. It’s one of those great scenes where both characters think the other knows something, but aren’t revealing everything and each have their own motivations. Seeing actors like Harris and Eastwood bounce off one another is never not entertaining.

As I was watching Absolute Power, I was reminded of a film that came out 10 years later, Shooter directed by Antoine Fuqua. Having them as a double bill would be interesting as they’re both films about a guy either being set up by the government or being hounded by it and the cat and mouse game that ensues as slowly those he cares about gets caught up in it. With Absolute Power that’s Luther’s estranged daughter Kate (Laura Linney). I thought their relationship was interesting as they’re not close because he’s a career thief but it becomes clear that Luther still cares about her in his own way. Won’t lie, was a bit worried when Luther and Kate first met as I didn’t know he had a daughter and thought for a horrible moment Absolute Power would be another film with a big age gap between Eastwood and his love interest but thankfully this wasn’t the case.

Whether or not Absolute Power is a particular memorable film is to be seen but it’s a pretty interesting and fun thriller. 3/5.