I tried hard but I found it difficult to block out my old memories of the previously successful 1990 film adaptation of Scott Turow's novel of the same name. I kept anticipating the big twist I knew was bound to emerge in the final episode but was actually caught on the hop, no bad thing, by the different ending contrived this time.
Stretched out to eight 42-minute episodes there was naturally a lot more time to develop situations and introduce more characters and their motivations although whether this made for a better viewing experience is another matter. Jake Gyllenhaal, who always looks as if he's on the verge of bursting into tears, gets lots to work with here in the Rusty Sabich role played earlier by Harrison Ford. He's the deputy prosecuting district attorney of Chicago and is favoured to succeed his older boss when the latter steps down on the grounds of both age and general health. That all changes however at the next election which deposes both the DA and his deputy with the new DA quickly installing his own man, Sabich's rival, the generally disliked Tommy Molto, as the new no. 2. The two men are presented as opposites, Sabich the immaculously dressed, successful and popular family man with his pretty wife and two kids, living in luxury with the swimming pool in the back garden. Molto, by contrast is dishevelled, single, living alone with just his cats for company and is largely disliked by almost everyone around him. Importantly it's Rusty who makes it with their co-worker, the attractive and intelligent Caroline while Tommy, who clearly has feelings for her too, is met only with her derision.
The action then centres on Caroline's brutal murder in her own home, her battered body inhumanely trussed up in the style of another recent murder victim, although that perpetrator is now in jail. We learn that she was carrying Rusty's child and wanted out of the relationship but that an obsessed Sabich wasn't prepared to let her go and not only bombarded her with text messages but visited her on the night of her death. This obviously makes him the prime suspect and when he's later charged, his subsequent trial becomes the hottest thing in town, especially when the new DA puts Molto onto the case as lead prosecutor.
From there, the narrative takes on numerous turns and twists as we see close-up the effect of the trauma on Sabiich's family, comprising his wife and late-teen daughter and son. Meanwhile as internal politics rage in the DA's office, various other potential suspects are paraded before us, everything leading up to the climactic extended murder trial which contains some shocks and surprises of its own. The trial verdict is delivered only about halfway through the final episode leaving time for the big reveal which while it caught me on the hop, probably only did so because it was so improbable.
Be that as it may, there was much to commend in the production. I personally wasn't taken with the acting of Gylenhaal and particularly Ruth Negga as his troubled wife, being much more impressed by the actors playing the old and new DA, the trial judge and especially Peter Sarsgaard as Molto. My main criticisms would be the overuse of dream sequences and flashbacks plus that old bugbear of mine, especially in US-made dramas, of unrealistic unnatural-sounding dialogue (just what does "the there, there" mean?) and especially young teenagers talking as if they're mature adults.
I will go back and rewatch the movie in the near future but even if this drawn-out remake seemed in some ways unnecessary and irrelevant, it was at least mostly watchable and entertaining.
