BEFORE: The 7th consecutive film with Edward Norton. Ah, but it had to end some time. Everything has to end - like today I'm home, and I should probably think about taking down the Christmas lights.
THE PLOT: An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.
AFTER: From a theater to a courtroom, which of course is another kind of stage, and from actors to lawyers, which of course is another kind of liar. And this film freely admits that - one level it doesn't matter if the defendant is guilty, or if the lawyer knows that, it's the lawyer's job to introduce doubt or to prove that there is doubt, in order to force the prosecution to prove things without any doubt.
Ah, but this also turned out to be a great choice to follow "Birdman", for reasons I can't get into, because that would be a spoiler. And Ed Norton turned out to be the best actor in the film, again, for a reason I'd rather not spoil. Let's just say that the film presented him with a unique acting challenge, and he pulled it off very well. Once again, we see the difference in two acting styles, Norton again representing the "more is more" school, and Gere representing the "less is more" school.
As for the plot, there's some suggestion that there's a connection between the murder case and the lawyer's previous case, and he even asks his previous client for advice on what exactly the bishop was caught up in, but this wasn't explained very well, and it's quite unclear whether this connection was introduced to create doubt in court, or to create doubt and confusion for the audience. It just seems like a huge coincidence to have a connection between the cases, similarly it's a huge coincidence to square off in court against one's ex-lover as opposing counsel. I'm sure it's possible, just very unlikely.
It seems like a priest with a dark side might have still been something of a novel idea back in 1996. It's almost a cliche now because so many instances have been in the news since then. In the end, it's too bad that Norton's altar boy character here couldn't have tried to kill his priest character from "Keeping the Faith"...
NITPICK POINT: The attorney states that he can't change a plea in the middle of a trial. But I've seen this happen on "Law & Order" all the time. Someone just says, "Your honor, at this time we'd like to remove our plea of <
Also starring Richard Gere (last seen in "Internal Affairs"), Laura Linney (last seen in "Love Actually"), Andre Braugher (last seen in "Striking Distance"), John Mahoney (ditto), Alfre Woodard (last heard in "Dinosaur"), Frances McDormand (last heard in "Madagascar 3"), Maura Tierney (last seen in "Welcome to Mooseport"), Terry O'Quinn, Stephen Bauer, Joe Spano.
RATING: 6 out of 10 objections
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