Reversible Errors

Although "Reversible Errors" is basically a courtroom drama, its big strength lies in the fact that it is in fact much more than that. As I will explain later, the plot is weaved on the intersecting relationships of two couples (Selleck/Potter and Macey/Huffman), whose complexities define the course of events.

The story starts with Arthun Raven (Macey), quitting the prosecutor's office due to a personal tragedy. His colleague Muriel Wynn (Potter) asks him a last favor: Could he drop to Judge Gillian Sullivan's (Huffman) home, to get a warrant for a new case she has been assigned with her lover Sgt. Larry Starczek (Selleck)? Raven agrees, and this is how he makes his first encounter with an enigmatic woman he will fall in love with later on.

The case Starzek and Wynn are working on is a triple homicide, and things seem to clear-up very fast: Squirrel (Plummer), a small-time crook, is caught and confesses to the murders, and Judge Sullivan sentences him to death. The arresting duo gets their dues, and especially Potter is set for a shining career path.

However, seven years later, everything gets turned upside down. Sullivan is no longer a judge, as she has been convicted and jailed for graft. On top of that, she has also received a letter by Erdai (Rebhorn), a dying inmate who claims he is the perpetrator of the old triple crime, and this haunts her conscience for perhaps having sentenced an innocent man to death. Enter Raven, who coincidentally has just been assigned to represent Squirrel in his last weeks before his execution. Raven quickly believes in Squirrel's innocence, and begins a harried crusade to save his life, getting Sullivan on board as well. However, things now have gotten complicated, as the former duo of Selleck and Potter is by no means willing let him destroy their precious case due to the dubious testimony of a dying crook. A dirty race begins for the ultimate search of the truth, and a clash becomes inevitable.

Scott Turow's excellent story is lengthy and complex; after all the movie lasts nearly three hours. And yet, at no point does the viewer get bored. There are no visible plot gaps, and the pace is steady and fast. Moreover, there some great twists throughout the film, so it is easily understandable why the three hours pass so quickly and enjoyably.

And yet, although the plot is very good, the strength of the film lies elsewhere: In the development of the characters and their relationships. These are four completely different persons: The inexperienced but overly ambitious Potter, the introvert and ethical Raven, the erratic but well-intentioned Sullivan, and the experienced but perhaps hypocrite Selleck. Director Mike Robe studies each character in depth, and artfully shows us how everyone interacts with everyone else in this complex and evil web.

An undiscovered gem, "RE" is a movie really worth seeing. 8/10.

Wm. H. Macy and Felicity Huffman make it worth watching.

Turow's complex novel has been dumbed down to fit the mini-series format, but that's a trifle. Watch it for the magic that Macy and Huffman bring to small screen.

These are two stars who would not get big screen attention as romantic leads, but their performances sing here, given a chance to play center stage.

Watch how Huffman, as a disbarred and disgraced judge, plays her scene at the dept. store cosmetic counter. In a matter of seconds, she expresses purposeful employment, unguarded hope, crumbling shame, and icy self-contempt.

Macy's opening scene on Labor Day weekend, packing up his office, brings his character to life with uncommon line readings. This script is hardly Mamet, but Macy's skill raises the level of the writing. He clips off one line, talking about his sister's death: "Better this way, instead of her living like a ..." He never says the word vegetable, as if he recognizes the inadequacy of the cliché. No he's not commenting on the script, but letting the character halt himself before dishonoring his dead sibling with dead metaphors.

Let's hope this husband and wife team both get Emmy Awards for such remarkable work. And let's hope we see more of them on the big screen too.

I found this movie to be extremely well written but uneven. Writing is superb, criminal side to it is involving as the secrets are revealed, but the movie mainly concentrate on two couples: the one where Macy is concerned had me emotionally linked, while the other, lead by stoic Selleck remains cold and uninvolved. You end up hating one couple whose actions brings to light the past of the other. So if you're interested in criminal thrillers, you'll enjoy it. If you are a William H Macy fan, you'll love it, but if you're a Tom Selleck fan, well, aside from him showing his naked butt, you won't get any thrills. Mustache should have been told to lose the typical western face in this one or to lose his underwear earlier in his career when he wasn't 30 pounds too fat for us to care.

Scott Turow's books are always thrilling and surprising, but filming them are not easy tasks. Despite the great performances of William Macy and Glenn Plummer, Reversible Errors turns out disappointing. The abrupt cuts, may be to fit in the TV format, makes the movie loose the suspense and the pace. The come and go of the plot seems much unreal and absurd. Tom Selleck overact and Monica Potter does not convince as a prosecutor. Gilliam Sullivan does not compromise. The only reason that prevents you from giving up watching it before the end, is the hope that something really unexpected would happen. At the end you get a feeling that another good story was spoiled at the screen.

This is brilliant - it has all the elements of a cause celebre that could indeed be true, as this is how it plays out. A real whodunnit, and thriller from start to finish. My only moan is the comment about born again Christians. It is sure that some criminals will claim to find Jesus, and then try and see what they can get out of it, but it is also true that some of these men and women do genuinely change, and given the recidivist rate amongst convicts, if we can hope for nothing else, let it be true. It is a fact that in any criminal mystery, true or fictitious, there seem to be a number of possibilities as to who the guilty party really is. Many credible suspects turn into red herrings in the end, and one would like to think that if the proper investigative work is carried out, then justice will be done, though the heavens fall. One also cares about the characters, the police, prosecution and the defence, and none of them are really villains, whether or not they may do questionable things. Even when a famous case is resolved, one does not forget that life goes on, and the characters do not necessarily live perfectly happily ever after. Well done this one.