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by Frank Wilkins

Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors, so I had very high expectations going in to this movie. This is usually a death curse, however. I got to see a different side to Freeman, and I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Claire Kubick (Ashley Judd) is a high-powered attorney in San Francisco whose husband, Tom Civic (Jim Caviezel) is arrested for the murder of nine villagers in a raid in El Salvador many years prior. The raid was a response to a terroristic act in which 3 Americans were killed in a café bombing. Claire becomes consumed with clearing her husband's name even to the point of risking her partnership in her law firm.

She joins Lt. Terrence Embry (Adam Scott), the assigned rookie defense attorney, and employs the assistance of Charles Grimes (Morgan Freeman), the motorcycle riding, recovering alcoholic, to help her defend her husband. Freeman is great in his role and his character is kind of a cross between Columbo and James Rockford with his disheveled appearance and the reputation of being the best in the business. He calls upon his old friends, prostitutes and former drinking buddies to gather additional information to help solve the crime. It is a bit refreshing to see him providing the comic relief in a movie for once. Judd is great in her role and not bad to look at either. She was most convincing in her courtroom scenes. She is one of those actors who commands attention on the screen with her knockout good looks and her powerful delivery. Caviezel probably turns in the best performance of all. He was very convincing as the husband who has been accused of a crime he didn't commit. He has grown up a bit but I remember his performance in Frequency and he recently starred in The Count of Monte Cristo. Keep an eye on this kid.

There is a very big plot twist in this movie and I'll say nothing more on that, other than be prepared! We needed a few mysterious Deep Throat type characters to fill in some plot holes and there were a few areas of the story that got overlooked, but I was very entertained by this movie and found myself engrossed in the plot. The climax got a bit out of hand with a typical Hollywood treatment of gunshots and wrestling in the dark, but nonetheless, this movie is very good. Not great....not outstanding....but very good.

I give this movie a considerably high "Julia Roberts factor" because there is a love story built into the plot and the woman risks everything for her man. I give it a very high "macho factor" because of Ashley Judd. Guys....watch it for Ashley Judd! Due to the huge plot twist at the climax, I give it the maximum score for wrap-up factor. I gave it a fairly high mark on the "Se7en factor" scale because I did find myself thinking about it a lot the next day.

Frank Wilkins

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Screen formats: Widescreen anamorphic, 3.35:1

Complete Cast:

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