BEFORE: Lucky yet again, John Forsythe from "In Cold Blood" was also in "And Justice For All" with Jack Warden. Maybe that's not really luck, since Jack Warden was in a lot of films.
THE PLOT: A female lawyer takes an accused wife-murderer as a client, but finds herself morally compelled to betray him one way or another.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Jagged Edge" (Movie #763)
AFTER: Well, at least this film's in color - I just watched 5 films in black and white this week, so it's nice to see something a little more visually exciting. I think I've determined that I'm 73% more likely to fall asleep during a black and white film, maybe my retinas get bored or something.
But I barely know where to begin in tearing this one apart, or even breaking it down - it's just so blatant in its stupid obviousness. Even if I apply everything I've learned about the legal system so far (mostly from "Law & Order", but what the heck...) this fails to make much rational sense. IF a man kills his wife (I'm not saying he did, but come on...) then he shouldn't even tell his lawyer that he did, no matter how good the lawyer is. The lawyer has attorney/client privilege, of course, but in order to enter a plea of innocent, he or she has to believe in the client. Otherwise they're supposed to plead "no contest" or something like that, right?
Here the lawyer doesn't even want to take the case - but this concerns a client who won't take "No" for an answer. Apparently he asked his wife, "Do you want to be thrown out of a 10th floor window?" and she said "No", and you can guess the rest. And he's such a Don Juan (Spanish for "Don Johnson") that he's always got another rich older woman lined up to either sleep with, pay for his defense, or both. And no one seems to notice his pattern, despite all of their unexplained disappearances.
The actors practice two schools of emoting - either over-the-top, or comatose. And it's hard to believe this was directed by Sidney Lumet, who also directed legal thrillers like "The Verdict" and "12 Angry Men" - somehow "1 Angry Client" doesn't seem like it's in the same league.
Some have pointed out the similarities to "Jagged Edge", although with that film there was some question about the accused man's guilt - here, not so much. Is he a stone-cold killer or just a charming, manipulative man? Well, both, really. It's just as blatant as the film's title.
Also starring Don Johnson (last seen in "A Boy and His Dog"), Rebecca De Mornay (last seen in "The Three Musketeers" (1993)), Stephen Lang (last seen in "Avatar"), Ron White, with a cameo from Luis Guzman.
RATING: 2 out of 10 fingerprints
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