The Trial (2010– 100 mins) M. Modine

Matthew Modine plays Mac a depressed lawyer seconds away from ending his life, when a judge friend begs him to take a high profile case of a boy who is charged with murdering his girlfriend. It turns out the girl is the daughter of a prominent businessman in the town, and has plenty of connections and everyone wants swift justice. The kicker of the trial is the boy has no memory of the events of the evening at all which leads to a very hard claim of innocence.

   Oh the suicide part? Mac’s wife and two son’s were killed in a car accident and he’s a bit down about it. That’s basically about all we find out about this in a picture or two of flashbacks and some speaches about it Mac makes. This seems a bit strange considdering the whole movie is about second chances. The boy needs one and if he can help him, Mac can bring himself to starting his life new again.

It’s an ok movie but not too gripping. It’s made to look like a lifetime movie we would see from the 90’s. There’s never any huge ups or downs or any great moments. It all just plays like a 2 hour movie of Matlock. Modine is ok as the depressed lawyer but the depression and dwelling on it seems to come and go when the director feels it’s needed. There’s no weight to his acting, I kinda expect more from Modine, he seems like he’s mailing it in. He even acts like it’s a basic cable movie. The supporting cast is fine, they give him the pretty girl clerk (Nikki Deloach), his former father in-law is his private eye (R. Forster) and the new love interest who is also (go figure) a WIDOW! (Clare Carey). They are all also not too bad but again little more then basic cable parts.

Verdict—> You could do better, and you actually could do worse, but if you are out of options in the box and love law drama’s then you should see it. I just wouldn’t go out of my way to see it. I would wait until lifetime puts in on rather then rent it.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS