Legalese

This is not the greatest movie ever made, but it is surprisingly good. Your attention is grabbed from the very start and you're taken on a great ride. Films like this, which don't insult your intelligence, tend to be few and far between these days.

James Garner's plays a canny defense attorney who will stop at nothing to win a case. Kathleen Turner, looking incredibly different from her Romancing the Stone days, turns in a great over-the-top performance as an investigative journalist. Edward Kerr is excellent as the new kid on the block, torn between his ambition and his conscience.

Highly recommended.

I had never heard of this film before watching it and from its description and out-of-the-way billing was not expecting much. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This story of a lawyer straight out of law-school being handed the highest profile case in America being guided behind the scene by a big-hitting celebrity lawyer is no classic and will never be remembered in any poll but is solid entertainment. It turns out to be cleverer than it appears and cons well. It also comments on the role of the media in high profile cases and the way the practice of law uses and abuses this role. This film entertains and is well worth looking at.

This is a great movie!! It is much much better than most made for T.V. movies. Edward Kerr is so 'engagingly' charming and wonderful. I truly enjoyed his portrayal of lawyer Roy Guyton. Kathleen Turner is hilarious as the reporter/talk show host. The rest of the cast is equally good. All in all, this is a movie well worth watching.

Angela Beale a famous actress is charged with murdering her violent husband . The problem with this premise is that the very first scene sees Angela acting all strange as she bangs on doors telling everyone she killed her husband , though maybe that's not accurate . Maybe I should be saying the actress playing Angela - Gina Gershon - gives a masterclass in how to mug and over act for the camera in order for the audience to know that maybe she didn't kill her husband in self defence

That's the problem with LEGALSESE it's ridiculously overplayed , so much so that you have to turn off the sound and avoid looking at the screen to stop the performances assaulting your senses . Bob Hoskins said that the camera can read your mind and it's true so why didn't the cast in this movie realise this ?

I notice that the screen credits say Glenn Jordan was the director while Billy Ray wrote the script but since TNT was the TV company that produced this I have the feeling LEGALSESE was the brain child of Ted Turner . The villain of the story is Norman Keane . Is he a surrogate Rupert Murdoch by any chance ? No doubt this TVM is trying to be satirical but for satire to work via a narrative story subtlety is needed and there's no subtlety in sight - Only very loud acting

Edward Kerr's best work thus far; it's nice to see him as the lead. The casting is superb; the comic timing is excellent. Gina Gershon is delightful. Mary-Louise Parker's character is not as well-developed or explained as the others, but she does her best with the role. James Garner and Kathleen Turner are absolutely perfect. Overall, a funny, interesting film well worth watching.