messaging in a subpar film

“The Formula” combines high concept with convoluted execution. It’s the kind of mystery thriller that’s all about trying to find answers but really even the questions are steeped in so much subterfuge, red herrings, multiple characters, and overplotted conspiracy motivations that we’re also just trying to keep track of what those are. The film has something to say but it’s wrapped up in way more confusion than need be.


It stars George C. Scott as a Los Angeles detective named Caine, who’s cranky enough just from his divorce and only getting to see his son on few occasions. When an ex-chief and friend is murdered, Caine is called upon to wade through a complicated plot of cocaine, rich guy social circles, sexual kinks, and money being transferred between people in high power.


All this finally leads us to Germany, where Caine discovers that the Nazis had a plan for renewable coal energy but it was suppressed by the oil companies many years ago. What we know for sure is that big time oil magnate Adam Seifel (Marlon Brando, cameoing in three scenes) has something to do with all this and we have to wait two hours to figure out what.


That is not time well spent as the film devolves into a redundant series of interrogations by Scott that usually end in that person being killed. People lurk in the shadows but i’m not sure we ever even learn who they are or who they work for and there are other people who know more than they say and have ties to things we also are unclear on.


Now apparently there is no such actual formula for turning coal into energy so this aspect is nothing more than macguffin. What we’re to infer here in the messaging though is how big an influence oil companies have over everything and that America has a lot of blood on its hands. Not surprising, but the film riles us up over the evil well enough while also portraying how the powers-that-be are barely interested in alternatives.


Brando, expressing every sentence in a drawl, tries to represent everything of fat cat greed in what feels like a satirical performance. He’s often very funny, especially in the ending speech where the film lets him loose on his corrupted worldview. Scott also keeps this somewhat watchable as a cynical, fed-up man representing our disgust at the state of big oil’s influence. He, too, is never better than in the ending scene with Brando.


But the film itself is too busy and overplotted to slow down. It’s too hard to keep up with it and in part we feel like even the screenwriter is barely able to do so either. Maybe there was too much focus on the eventual messaging to make sure the rest of the movie was free of leaks. But this script is just one gigantic spill.