One of the problems with this Robert Redford-directed film is that it just isn't interesting enough. A long and wordy explanation of a scandal that blew up when a US TV quiz show was found to be rigged, it's likely to provoke a reaction of 'So what? ' from many quarters. John Turturro plays the contestant whose Jewish face doesn't fit. He's ordered to take a dive on the simplest of questions, so that the baton can be handed on to WASP English lecturer Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), who is fed the questions to keep him going (in a sop to integrity he chooses that, rather than get the answers direct) and whose popularity increases the show's rating by mega-proportions. The subsequent investigation by a Congressional committee marginally holds the interest, but Fiennes' high-flown statement at the end does little to provide the film with a proper climax.

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