Custodian, The (John Dingwall, 1993) Anthony LaPaglia (Quinlan), Hugo Weaving (Church), Barry Otto (Ferguson), Kelly Dingwall (Reynolds), Essie Davis, Gosia Dobrowolska, Naomi Watts, Bill Hunter, Norman Kaye; cop investigative thriller; LaPaglia and Weaving feed info about police corruption to reporter Dingwall who feeds it to investigator Otto; but he stuffs up, resulting in deaths of Otto's wife and then Weaving; LaPaglia then leaves the force
The title of The Custodian (John Dingwall, 1993) may be read as referring to Juvenal’s question: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (Who will guard the guards themselves?). Quinlan (Anthony LaPaglia) and Church (Hugo Weaving) feed information about police corruption to reporter Reynolds (Kelly Dingwall) who feeds it to investigator Ferguson (Barry Otto); but Reynolds makes a literally fatal mistake, resulting in the deaths of first Ferguson’s wife and then Church; Quinlan then leaves the force.
Jim Schembri:
All of the signs are there in the first 40 minutes of John Dingwall's The Custodian to point to a sweaty, top-notch thriller that Sidney Lumet (Q&A, Serpico, Prince of the City) would have been proud of. It falls far short, however, of the heights it often looks like scaling. And it hurts. Murray: 381.
Garry Gillard | New: 3 November, 2012 | Now: 12 June, 2023