Silent Witness

"Silent Witness" is the third entry into the new "Mystery Movie" that appears on TNT each Tuesday. This was an extra one on Wednesday.

The story concerns top-notch attorney Tony Lord (Dermot Mulroney) who returns to his home town to defend an old friend (Michael Cudlitz), a high school track coach accused of murdering the underage girl with whom he was having an affair. She was found to be pregnant during the autopsy. This murder parallels a murder 28 years early that Lord himself was accused of, but was acquitted.

I've seen two other films in this TNT series, and I have to say I like this one the best so far. The main reason is Dermot Mulroney, who has a strong presence as Tony and really carries this film. Also, the script is pretty good. The rest of the acting is fine, except that Anne Heche's role. She really doesn't have much to do, or if she did, she really didn't register much.

If you like this genre, it's worth seeing.

I absolutely love this movie. It was so much like the book! That very seldom happens with movies, of course certain things must be shortened and edited to fit a two hour time frame. I read this book about 20 years ago! I never even knew there was a movie on it until now. It was very good! The Twist and the suspense was absolutely perfect, all the veteran actors in here were amazing! This movie is a must-see. And of course it is a movie you will watch more than once.

"Silent Witness" is one of my favourite free-standing lawyer books, so when I found it available for streaming I was rather excited. The book has a fairly standard core storyline, but it is moved into the "excellent" category because of the depth of character development. In a way this is carried over into the film, in that Dermot Mulroney and Michael Cudlitz match very closely the mental image one forms of the lawyer and his friend who has been accused of murder. But one needs to have read the book to know why. The third key character, played by the excellent Anne Heche is, I think, under-used in the script with the result that a wealth of her character development as the story unfolds is lost. The key problem here is that the book depends heavily and successfully on a detailed back story, and I can imagine the difficulty in fitting this all in to an average-length film. Supporting characters do rather better, in part because understanding them is not so dependent upon the under-used back story. Judd Hirsch puts in a sterling performance as the older lawyer and Lisa Berry is a thoroughly convincing prosecutor. The quality of the film is enhanced by the court scenes, which are rather proficient and not, I think, of the run-of-the-mill Perry Mason-type. The resolution of the story is less convincing in the film as use of certain parts of the back-story would be problematic. The moral: enjoy the film, but read the book!

This is above average for a TV movie. 90% of the story is good and convincing. Couple of obviously "crime fiction" parts but way less than the usual TV crime drama. Defence lawyer played by Dermot Mulroney returns to his hometown to defend his best friend on charges of murdering a student he was involved with. The story isn't obvious and kept me guessing.

There is a top notch cast. Dermot Mulroney is a convincing lawyer - can see him in more legal/crime roles like this. Anne Heche is a good actress as always - wish she acted more. Liked the way the younger versions of the characters looked like them. So even though there are 2 time frames it isn't confusing.

Overall worth a watch for sure.

Warmed over rehash of every Perry Mason-style courtroom murder mystery you've ever seen, but the wooden acting of the two male leads is what really sinks it. You'd have to be new to the genre not to see the ending coming from a mile away.