the main problem with power be that it feature way too may pointless character and subplots that add absolutely nothing to the movie whatsoever . it get boring after awhile and sit around wait through scene that do not connect to find something that drive the movie forward . you could probably pass it all off a character development and but all of them be either recycle from early scene in the movie and or be just simply to flat and uninteresting . lumet never give enough time to let any of the support cast blossom . he should have cut a few of the character ( hackman and the wife ) and concentrated harder on others ( billing ) . it could have be a great and hard political thriller instead of a jumbled mess that lose any message in a sea of bad writing and acting and a fact that amaze me consider the cast . even gene hackman performance wasn not up to par . denzel washington be the only real actor of note here . gere and the others have all do much well performance elsewhere . sidney lumet need to go back to the fierce one man show he do in the seventy ( i. e and serpico ) and stop try to recapture his success with 12 angry men and fail safe . it hasn not work yet sidney and and it most likely never will . leave the ensemble drama to altman . negative or .