BEFORE: Another day housebound, which enabled me to catch up on last week's TV shows, and even squeeze in a game of Monopoly - my wife usually wins due to her uncanny ability to buy one property of every color, and even though she usually mortgages herself up to her eyeballs, her "build fast" strategy usually takes me down. I try to play her way, but I just can't do it - I need to have a money cushion before I develop my real estate. Tonight I somehow managed to hang on with just Boardwalk, Park Place and 3 railroads - she would have won if she hadn't landed on both Park Place AND Boardwalk in successive turns. Thanks, snake eyes!
THE PLOT: A young man fresh out of law school tries to win a reprieve for his racist grandfather, who is on death row.
AFTER: I didn't realize that this was based on a John Grisham novel, or I might have watched it next to "A Time To Kill" (Hmm...Grisham films absent from my list seem to be "The Pelican Brief", "The Client", "The Rainmaker", and "Runaway Jury" - but I'll never finish if I keep adding films)
Gene Hackman carries over from "Mississippi Burning", as does the Klan, and the state of Mississippi. Hackman plays an unremorseful, uncooperative racist Klansman, who's on trial for setting deadly explosions, and has spent years waiting for execution. But he's also unwilling to participate in his own defense, which suggests that he might be covering up for someone else, and afraid of the consequences if his sentence doesn't get carried out.
Chris O'Donnell plays the young attorney/grandson who digs into the family history, when he's not filing creative motions to try and get a stay of execution. At the same time, he tries to break through his grandfather's rough exterior, to determine if any part of him is worth saving.
The problem for me is, it would be easier to root for their efforts if the grandfather were any kind of sympathetic character, but he's not. And the suggestion is made that even if he's proven innocent of this crime, he's probably guilty of another one - so what's the point?
NITPICK POINT: If a lawyer obtains information illegally, he shouldn't be allowed to make it part of his case. But, as we've seen, a court case that's played strictly by the books doesn't make for great cinema - it's the sneaking around in county record rooms that adds a bit of intrigue.
As for the ending, I won't talk about it - except to say that according to the message boards, the ending of the movie was quite different from the ending of the novel. Make of that what you will.
Also starring Faye Dunaway (last seen in "Three Days of the Condor"), Robert Prosky (last seen in "Rudy"), Lela Rochon (last seen in "The Meteor Man"), Bo Jackson (yes, the athlete), and Jane Kaczmarek (last seen in "Pleasantville").
RATING: 5 out of 10 prison jumpsuits
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