Formulaic John Grisham legal thriller (a little bit of lawyering, a lot of dashing about), in which the author adopts an underdog or two, and throws them a steady diet of bones, biscuits, hamburger, filet mignon, as they dodge and run circles round the powerful and the baleful. The latter, in this case, are the New Orleans Mafia and assorted overzealous prosecutors; the underdogs are an eleven-year-old boy (or Little Man, as you prefer) who has witnessed a suicide, and the "unfit mother" whom he hires for one dollar as his attorney. Vivid portrayals by newcomer Brad Renfro, Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise Parker, Tommy Lee Jones (too vivid: out-Southerning everybody), Ossie Davis, Will Patton, and Anthony Edwards (if vivid can describe a meek and mild legal secretary); directed by Joel Schumacher. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
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