Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Updates:

High Crimes (2002)

Director: Carl Franklin

Average user rating

No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

When indie directors dip into the mainstream, sooner or later they just go with the flow. Case in point: Carl Franklin, a fine craftsman who made his mark with One False Move, followed it up with the well reviewed Devil in a Blue Dress and the underrated weepie One True Thing. This is a blandly anonymous courtroom potboiler which attempts to squeeze an ounce of credibility from some vaguely liberal sentiments. Thus we have Judd as go-getting attorney Claire Kubik, who puts her career on hold to defend her husband (Caviezel) against trumped-up charges of orchestrating a civilian massacre while on covert operations in El Salvador in 1988. Together with washed-up army lawyer Charlie Grimes (Freeman), Claire sets out to prove her fella has been made the fall-guy for a political cover-up. There's not much here we haven't seen a hundred times before. It's quite watchable, utterly predictable. Weird, though, how the pert, capable but unprepossessing Judd has picked up Joan Crawford's mantle, playing endless variations on a gutsy, determined, resourceful woman with dubious taste in men.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide