Shadow of Doubt

Nothing to much too add, nothing left to your imagination this is the last series of legal movies with a lot of common places. All the elements of a good commercial thriller are present: perversion, erotism, drugs, power and a woman in career well perform by Melanie Griffith. Tom Berenger it could be easily a statue or part of the furniture of certain scenes. The last political candidate for, hopefully, the last electoral campaign. A very expectable second to second film which in home video gives you a nice break. Rating: 4

This is an awful film. I don't know what is worse, the acting, the exploitation or the script. The ending is a total red herring. The film is rife with references to the Simpson trial and steeped in the world of LA sleeze. Typical LA navel gazing at its worst, this film is horribly misogynistic including the 'hit' rap lyrics of the defendant. I don't get the title at all. Unless the film-makers had never heard of Alfred Hitchcock or the film Shadow of a Doubt, of which I have no doubt!

This is a decent legal suspense/thriller, if you can accept sweet little Melanie Griffiths as a kick-ass sex-crime lawyer, which she pulled off pretty well. She has to juggle returned perverts from the past with perverts from the present, and althought the plot isn't mind-boggling it's fine if you aren't expecting the world. It might be the equal of Copycat with Sigournay Weaver.

Who'd have thought that Huey Lewis would have turned out to be a pretty good actor? The supporting cast of this film really hold this movie together, under Melanie Griffith's lead. Tom Berenger gives a great performance as the ambitious DA, and some of the best moments of the film are his scenes with Melanie Griffith. Overall,

I think the writers tried too hard with some of the dialogue, but the movie has enough twists and turns and a surprise ending that will keep you thinking past the movie's ending.

Not every actor was meant to play every role. Richard Gere, for example, was ideal as a high-profile, hotshot lawyer in "Primal Fear"; Melanie Griffith plays the female version of more or less the exact same role here, and she makes a valiant try, but the result is just posing, not acting. The film is watchable, thanks mostly to good direction by Randal Kleiser, who gives it the look and feel of a picture destined for theatrical release, even though it barely got any. But it is weakly plotted, and relies on all sorts of contrivances to move along (criminals who are carelessly spilling their guts out about crimes they committed, etc.). And what's worse, it doesn't play fair with the audience; the resolution is based on clues we had no way of knowing about. At least Tom Berenger proves that he is still a dependable actor. (**)