Captivating movie !

A different way of telling a story

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

After watching this film for only five minutes it dawned on me, where have I heard this music score before? Then, after about another forty minutes I thought, this story seems familiar........And then it hit me, I'm watching a near perfect copy of the Harrison Ford film 'Presumed Innocent'.Apart from a slightly different ending (and it is only slight) this story/film is a rip off of the Harrison Ford classic. The only difference is, is that 'Innocent' has terrible acting compared to the higher standard in 'Presumed Innocent'. If you want a good thriller/whodunit forget this film and watch 'Presumed Innocent' instead!I'm giving it a score of 2 out of 10 just for the fact I like the music!

This is an efficient movie with some neat twists and turns in the solving of a crime. It is largely inoffensive because it is constructed to the well worn formula of finger pointing to a murderer and then seeing just how many things can change your mind before the credits roll.The acting is reasonable but not sensational with the victim, Barbara (Marcia Gay Harden), being the best at everything in the back story played out throughout the film. Nothing sticks out as faulty, but it is not especially memorable either.If you like courtrooms and enjoy trying to work crimes out then it is worth a rental.

Every part in this made-for-TV drama is very well-acted. Unfortunately, "Innocent" is a bit too clever for its own good and the story doesn't quite hold together.I don't like bestsellers and have never opened a Scott Turow book. Nor have I ever seen a Turow film. I have avoided TV court dramas since Perry Mason. So I'm not well-versed in this genre. Maybe I'm naive but I could not fathom how Rusty figured copping to obstruction would save his son.Bill Pullman was a surprise here -- his every scene was riveting. I've never paid much attention to Pullman but I'll definitely watch for him going forward. The scene of Rusty's pillow talk with Anna was positively scary.It was creepy to see the incestuous secret kept from Pullman's son. The stakes were high and it troubled me to see this character manipulated.Marcia Gay Harden and Mariana Klaveno were superb as rivals for Pullman's devotion. I was surprised at how good practically everyone was in this trifle. Kudos also to Tahmoh Penikett, Richard Shiff, Alfred Molina, and Nimet Kanji.

This made-for-TV version of the Scott Turow novel is a competently made but not particularly inspiring translation to the small screen. With Bill Pullman and Alfred Molina in two of the leading roles, the acting is fine, but for some reason there seem to be a lot of English-as-a-second-language characters. Molina and the woman who portrays the judge play them with accents.One of the issues of courtroom dramas on screen is that they take place in a small space and there isn't much real movement going on. Typically, this is covered by an active camera, and that happens here, with short editing cuts and a camera that moves. Injudiciously applied, it becomes frantic, even hysterical, and that happens occasionally here.Even so, the central story is a solid one. If you have any taste for this genre, it's a couple of hours well spent.