Angela Beale a famous actress is charged with murdering her violent husband . The problem with this premise is that the very first scene sees Angela acting all strange as she bangs on doors telling everyone she killed her husband , though maybe that's not accurate . Maybe I should be saying the actress playing Angela - Gina Gershon - gives a masterclass in how to mug and over act for the camera in order for the audience to know that maybe she didn't kill her husband in self defence
That's the problem with LEGALSESE it's ridiculously overplayed , so much so that you have to turn off the sound and avoid looking at the screen to stop the performances assaulting your senses . Bob Hoskins said that the camera can read your mind and it's true so why didn't the cast in this movie realise this ?
I notice that the screen credits say Glenn Jordan was the director while Billy Ray wrote the script but since TNT was the TV company that produced this I have the feeling LEGALSESE was the brain child of Ted Turner . The villain of the story is Norman Keane . Is he a surrogate Rupert Murdoch by any chance ? No doubt this TVM is trying to be satirical but for satire to work via a narrative story subtlety is needed and there's no subtlety in sight - Only very loud acting
