The Trial

Slow and not particularly well acted, "The Trial" stars Matthew Modine in what was possibly a TV pilot.

Modine, one of the producers of this drama, plays Mac, an attorney who has been unable to cope with the horrible deaths of his wife and sons in a car accident. He has not been practicing law and in fact, is about to blow his brains out when a call comes in from a judge (Rance Howard) who wants him to take a case. A young man has been accused of giving a woman drugs and then killing her.

Mac reluctantly takes this on, coming up against a prosecutor (Bob Gunton) who asks for the death penalty. Mac hires an investigator (Robert Forster) and a psychiatrist (Clare Carey) to see what they can find out about what happened and about the psychological makeup of the man himself.

Nothing original about this film or the story. Modine gives a nice performance, as does Forster, one of my favorite actors. The rest of the acting was not impressive, nor was the direction. It possibly had the makings of a TV series, though, with some better pacing and scripts.

I went into this movie without knowing much about it besides it being about a criminal case that involves capital punishment. My expectations weren't really that high, I just wanted to be entertained for an hour and a half, unfortunately this movie did not cut it. If you've watched any other movie or TV show involving criminal cases or jury trials you can pretty much predict everything that is going to happen within the first 10 minutes of the movie and the cornier you guess the better. This movie hit every cliché there is at least twice. I guess you might have to give the actors some credit for keeping a straight face while saying their lines. The actors are pretty much the only reason I gave this 4 stars, the story itself deserves a 1, since a 0 doesn't exist. I certainly can't recommend this movie to anyone. If you think about going to see it I recommend you rent yourself a copy of any John Grisham movie or watch Law and Order Trial by Jury.

THE TRIAL, adapted from Robert Whitlow's novel of the same name by director Gary Wheeler and Mark Freiburger, is in many ways a reminder of what movies used to be - movies that centered on trials of innocent victims or trials that, like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, surfaced other issues to ponder. This film is a quiet little intimate tale about the justice system in all its elegance and flaws, but it is more: there are human stories that interweave giving the film an aura of caring that is so rare in today's CGI-oriented Hollywood.

The film is set in the beauty of Georgia countryside, complete with mists and fields and rivers where we first see attorney Mac MacClain (Matthew Modine), pensive after the accidental death of his wife and two children nine years ago. His practice has fallen, his mental sate has fallen below the flatline state, and he is contemplating suicide when a telephone call from the wise old town judge (Rance Howard) summons him to take on a case of the murder of one Angela Hightower, the young and beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the little town, the corrupt Hightower family being part of Mac's sad past encounters. The accused is Angela's boyfriend Pete Thomason (an impressive Randy Wayne) who is now in jail claiming he had total amnesia for the event. Mac feels a sense of responsibility to the boy and agrees to take on the case, hiring back his assistant Mindy (Nikki Deloach) and his investigator Ray (Robert Forster). As they uncover facts Mac seeks advice from psychologist Dr. Anna Wilkes (Clare Carey) who in addition to testing Pete finds time to share her Grieving Group Sessions with Mac.

The evidence is gathered and the trial begins after a plea bargain is denied by Pete. The Hightower lawyer is the brilliant, eloquent but ruthless Joe Whetstone (a fine performance by Bob Gunton) and the battle of wits and rights is on. The courtroom drama is well written and the turn of events from the trial to the followup findings and second trial are well molded. If the film ends in a too saccharine mode, the quality of acting in the film before that should make the audience tolerate the preachiness. There are some fine cameos -Larry Bagby, Burgess Jenkins, Brett Rice among them - and there is much to learn about contemporary youth habits and small town tenor. This is not a great film, but it is a refreshing memory of the small and intimate films of yesteryear.

Grady Harp

Retired lawyer Mac (Modine) receives a telephone call from a judge who wants him to defend Pete Thompson (Wayne) who was arrested for killing Angela, his girl friend, and he has no memory of what happened that fateful night.

This has all the feel of a made-for-TV movie, but very slow, perhaps too slow. We wait, too often, for characters to say their lines to a point we get tired of waiting and we scream out the lines we think are forthcoming. And, most times we are correct.

We understand about predictability, and we go along with it because we know that it's in the telling that the story works. But, here it was just too slow. Maybe that is why Mac's legal assistant, Mindy, goes somewhat overboard with her exuberance which was a complete contrast from everyone else. In other words she was too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when that was not called for, but the director allowed it. I thought she was annoying because of it, but, maybe she knew this needed some life. She wasn't wrong. Some may think she was a breath of fresh air in here. Hmmm………….

The clues were good, but there was no suspense or tension, and for a courtroom drama that hurts big time. Some logic flew out the window at times. Can't mention what logic as that gives away too much. Sorry (but it had much to do with motive, shhhhhh………..). The audience was forgotten. You know, the more I think about it, maybe this wasn't good enough to be a made-for-TV movie. At least I see tension and suspense in many TV dramas. Here everything was monotone, low-key, level, bland. Well, except for Mindy, of course.

Violence: Yes, very little. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.

Enjoyable and entertaining but there something's that don't add up.