Absence of Malice

An ambitious newpaper reporter Megan (Sally Field) is sent to interview Gallagher (Paul Newman), the reclusive business son of a deceased mobster. Though Megan isn't fully aware of it, she is being manipulated by an ambitious FBI investigator (Bob Balaban), who hopes to tie Gallagher to the recent disappearance of a labor leader. Megan gains Gallagher's confidence, then writes a scathing piece suggesting that her subject and the missing man were in cahoots. Events deteriorate from there, and the film concludes with a legal harangue presided over by a sagacious old federal functionary played by Wilford Brimley. The true villain is routed, though there's no guarantee that Gallagher and Megan will ever be able to mend their own emotional fences.