Before it turns slack and sentimental, "Power," Sidney Lumet's foray into the world of political consultants, crackles with a kind of moral static.

There is little of the gratuitous hysteria that usually mars Lumet's work, and David Himmelstein's busy script keeps things moving, though at the price of losing track of a couple of significant subplots.

The movie seems to be asking us to walk out of the theater shaking our heads in disillusionment, but I was more puzzled than disillusioned.

A misfire satire that preaches against slick political practices by high-powered political consultants.