Matthew McConaughey plays rookie lawyer "Jake Brigance" who finds himself defending murder suspect "Carl Lee Hailey" (Samuel L. Jackson) in this heavy-handed movie, an adaptation of John Grisham’s novel of the same name.
From previous film adaptations of Grisham’s work, like "the Firm", and "The Pelican Brief" which I have seen but not read, I can only assume that some of the difficulties with the movie stem from poor writing at the source. I would appear to me that Grisham is a pulp fiction writer, grinding out stories by the score and really not taking enough time to tie the loose ends together. Whatever the case may be, the movie had enough action to keep me interested but way too many transparent attempts at manipulation to allow me to be satisfied with it.
The story: two white trash thugs rape a young black child on her way home from the country store, finishing up by hanging her. The rope breaks and the child comes home. The two thugs are picked up by the local sheriff, admirably played in a bit role by Charles Dutton. On their way to their arraignment the rednecks are slain in the court building by said Sam L. Jackson with an M16 automatic rifle. A deputy is caught in the fire and subsequently loses a leg.
Young Brigance is appointed Hailey’s attorney. Being new to the game, he is quickly advised by his greasy partner "Harry Rex" (Oliver Platt) and picks up an admiring law clerk "Roark", pronounced throughout the movie as RO-arK by the hickish lawyers she hooks up with. Sandra Bullock sleepwalks through this film as Roark, playing her usual bimbo role.
Director Joel Schumacher apparently couldn’t decide just what he wanted to show in this film (other than reprehensible liberal political drivel) so he showed a little bit of everything, ranging from the Grand Dragon Wazoo of the Ku Klux Klan, to the NAACP, to a corrupt local black minister, ad nauseam, to Matthew McConaughey's buttocks. That's right, the director did take an inordinate interest in McConaughey’s physique, choosing to show him in various states of undress as often as possible. It was truly an example of gratuitous display of flesh, adding nothing to the story.
Brigance is the idealistic white knight who is willing to accuse the audience of racism if they convict Hailey of the murder. The rest of the white folks are depicted as intolerable bigots. The blacks as oppressed victims.
Despite a bevy of great supporting actors, including Kiefer Sutherland (and his dad), Patrick McGooghan, Kevin Spacey, Jackson, Dutton, and Platt, there is not enough meat in the story to cloak the bones of this turkey.
Jackson fans will be pleased with his performance, but few others will find enough in this bomb to occupy two and a half hours of their time.
Especially insulting is the director’s (and possibly Grisham’s) message that the South is ba-ad, and peopled only with in-bred rednecks and poor innocent blacks, exactly the misinformed view of the typical white liberal Northerner who would not have one of these disenfranchised blacks over to lunch.
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