Rotten Tomatoes gave it good reviews, and the theater was pretty full for an early screening. It is based on a book by the same name. I have not read the book, so don’t know if there are any differences between the book and film.
It was a decent film - nice plot, good cast, fast pacing and my SO and I both thought it was worth the price of admission.
That said, there is no particular reason to dash off to see this on the big screen - this would do just fine on DVD, or later on a cable premium channel. It is a way-better-than average cop/lawyer TV series/film - but not really much more.
If you are a fan of criminal lawyer mysteries, you will really like the film.
The wife and I saw it last night also. Pretty good film with some nice twists. But it did leave me wondering about a few things. I’m hoping someone who works in the legal profession can chime in on this:
In real life, if you’re a lawyer and a client came right out and admitted he was guilty in not only the crime you’re representing him for but in other crimes as well, including crimes involving past clients of yours who’ve been found guilty, would you still be under any ethical obligation to keep representing that person? Is there any sort of mechanism in place that would allow you to bring that client’s crimes to light.
Hooo boy, million dollar question right there. Careers have been made and lost on that situation. Somebody will come here in later and give a more detailed response, but in the simplest terms-- there are ways you can avoid having to represent the client, but a lot of it depends on if the client will let you leave and whether the judge will go along with it. What you can’t do is allow the client to testify on the stand and lie about it. If they insist on going forward with their testimony, there are certain procedures you have to go through and if all else fails, you can go to the judge and more or less say, you can’t effectively represent the client while maintaining your ethical duty to the court. Unless some weird situation arises, a judge will likely let you off the hook.
But, as far as the past crimes go and helping your non-guilty client goes, I can’t think of a way offhand that you could maintain your duty to both clients. Anonymous tips to the police might work, but in reality, you’re still breaching your confidentiality to your current (guilty) client. You just might get away with it without getting caught in that case. I’d be interested to know what other people think in that case.
And wow. Apologies for the terrible grammar and run-on sentences above.
Edit: In all that gibberish above, I didn’t really answer the question fully. But the answer, I’d say would 1) yes with a but and then 2) no with a maybe. Parse that out as best you can with my ramblings above.
Nothing to add other than that I’m a big fan of Michael Connelly’s books, so I’m glad to hear that this movie doesn’t suck too bad. I’m looking forward to seeing it soon.
Hubby and I want to see this, probably around April 1st (the next weekend he’ll have at home). I’m sure we could wait for it on DVD, but a lot of times, we go to the movies because we want to go out, have a date. When we’re home, we’re available for the kid to ask for any old thing, plus our tenants feel like they can drop by any old time for any old thing. If we’re out, it’s harder to disrupt us.
We both like crime dramas a lot, and it’s got a hell of a cast.
I haven’t read the spoilers, but I am looking forward to seeing it.
Saw it last night (haven’t read the book) - agree that it’s four out of five stars - and that there’s no problem at all with it not being more than that. Minor question:
The evil rich boy told his mom that his lawyer had a private investigator who needed killin’. What details he gave her, who knows. ERB gave mom the gun that he had stolen from his lawyer, and she killed the private eye. …But it seems slightly illogical. It seems to me that ERB couldn’t be certain what the private eye had found, nor whether the private eye had already managed to pass it on to the lawyer, or anyone else. Mom was nevertheless willing to go on with the murder. Q: Am I making too much of this? A: Hell yes. But still…?
