A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child.
In Connery it has a hero who is inescapably appealing.
– Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle,
18 Jun 2002
rotten:
Despite its merits, the script fails to escape the silly season that fouls up so many thrillers, that time when the twists merely seem like the narrative equivalents of those violin shrieks on a cheesy score.
– Rick Groen,
Globe and Mail,
12 Apr 2002
rotten:
It doesn't bog down in the bogs, but it's slow-moving just about everyplace else.
– Peter Rainer,
Los Angeles Times,
13 Feb 2001
rotten:
There is no psychological depth, no real motivation, no human values to weigh, just characters jerked here and there like puppets in an arbitrary plot.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
The longer you stay with it, the more routine and uninspired it seems -- not to mention cowardly.