YMMV / Absolute Power (1997)

• Magnificent Bastard: Luther Whitney is a methodical career burglar whose high-profile thefts have never been traced back to him. During one such burglary, Luther witnesses the President of the United States, Alan Richmond, murder Christy Sullivan, the young wife of billionaire philantropist Walter Sullivan. Luther steals the murder weapon and being disgusted with the President's attempts to have it covered up, resolves to expose him. Luther threatens the President and his conspirators by sending them notes and proof of Richmond's crime while visiting the White House on a guided tour in disguise. Luther also manages to avoid being assassinated by two independent snipers when agreeing to meet his estranged daughter Kate out in the open and simultaneously avoid capture by the police officers investigating Christy's death by donning a police uniform hidden underneath his overcoat. Luther eventually manages to destroy the conspiracy by exposing the truth to Walter Sullivan and protect his daughter after she becomes a target, causing the President himself to commit suicide in shame.
• Nightmare Fuel: The entire scene between Christy and Richmond; that is after the President becomes violent and pulls no punches in attempting to have his way with her, willing or unwilling, forcing her to defend herself as the scene continues to escalate out of control.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Dennis Haysbert plays Secret Service Agent Tim Collin.
  • Scott Glenn plays the other Secret Service Agent.
  • Penny Johnson Jerald plays one of the detectives.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Walter Sullivan insists that Christy was not a Gold Digger and that he genuinely loved her, and her murder by President Richmond's staff is what drives the plot. However, consider her track record. She marries an octogenarian billionaire like Sullivan, then convinces him they should have an open marriage when he could not perform his marital duties so she could have sex with other men (even though this upsets him), making the idea that she married for love ring hollow. Then she seduces an even more powerful man that she knows Sullivan would absolutely not approve of, and only gets into a fight with him because Richmond starts Slut-Shaming her. While she obviously did not deserve to be murdered, her actions paint her as a much more manipulative and self-centred individual than the narrative insists she is.

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