Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I'm probably repeating some of the issues already put forward concerning this film. The father in this movie is an utter ass. He acts only in his own self interest. If such a creep exists, we can see why the kid is a bit messed up. The plot follows the discovery of a young girl's body and a link to a young man (the son) who is connected to her. Once the father, played by Liam Neeson, goes bananas and starts destroying evidence, the die is cast. Meryl Streep's doctor/mother tries to look at things in a sane way, but she is constantly overpowered by her brutish husband. She is a realist and knows what needs to be done. The father makes it so much worse than it could have been that options are really limited. Also, Alfred Molina's lawyer role is so full of it. He chomps on a sandwich while talking about the most serious issue in the world. This is supposed to fill us with confidence (he may be eccentric but I'll bet he's really good). The script and the formulation of the events in this film, not to mention much of the acting just doesn't cut it very well.

How you could take Meryl Streep, Liam Nelson and Alfred Molina and only produce a half baked turkey like this is beyond me. But they did. The plot, as serpentine as it was, could have made sense. But it plays against human nature a good part of the time. Or maybe it was just the dialogue that wasn't human. I plugged along with this tired play only to see how it ended. It did. The idea that a 16 year old could get himself into so much trouble is not unbelievable. And after killing someone, even accidentally, one would probably become panic stricken. But I think it's human nature to try and hide the crime, not just leave all the clues and drive your family car home with blood in the trunk, including the mysterious bloody glove (where did that come from?) As for the father, he should stick with art. By trying to hide what he assumes is his son's crime, he only makes it worse. Meryl is a mother and she plays that part well. In fact she is the only believable character. Julia Weldon must be well connected because she can't act and that was a major drawback. The dichotomy of whether one should support family at all costs or seek the truth for all involved ( for the sake of society) is not new. As an artist, if he were from Bulgaria or some such country, Nelson's character might seem more believable. Everything is corrupt there. But here, we still assume that the innocent may get a fair shake, in spite of 6 years of the current regime's attempts to take away all rights of anyone they don't like. Never been a big fan of Furlong and his whining seems to be nearly continual in anything he does. Is there a casting call for whiners? There was a kernel of an idea in this movie, but without the proper care, it just became nutty.

Director Barbet Schroeder's curiously artificial drama, adapted from Rosellen Brown's book, concerns teenager Edward Furlong, a boy from a stable home, standing accused of killing his girlfriend in a snowy New England town. The family dynamics (with Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson as Furlong's parents) seem strangely off-kilter in a picture that depends on a realistic familial unit (it just doesn't come off, despite the talent involved). The film's editing is tight, while the cinematography and vividly-drawn flashbacks lend a much-needed sinister air to the proceedings. Unfortunately, Schroeder's direction overall is pitched far too high, as is Neeson's unsuccessful performance. A mildly intriguing near-miss. ** from ****

BEFORE AND AFTER Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Dolby DigitalA middle-class New England family is forced to confront a range of difficult issues when the eldest child (Edward Furlong) is accused of murdering his girlfriend (Alison Folland).Barbet Schroeder's earnest drama looks and feels like a big-screen TV movie, toplined by A-list stars and filmed with professional elegance on wintry New England locations. Schroeder struggles to avoid melodrama and mawkishness, resulting in a lack of tension, as parents Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson become torn between protecting their son and telling the truth about his possible involvement in Folland's death. Frustrated lawyer Alfred Molina makes the point that 'truth' has little or no bearing on the criminal justice system, where defence and prosecution teams become engaged in brinkmanship designed to sway the jury one way or another. Ted Tally's screenplay makes a number of similar points, but the narrative begins to drift around the halfway mark and never really recovers. Some will be won over by the cast and production values, others won't be so forgiving.