Strained chipperness in the face of tragedy: the innocent-bystander shooting of an imminent bride-to-be. (Not just the characters are strained, but writer-director Brad Silberling most of all.) What the victim's parents do not know -- Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon -- is that their daughter had already broken off the engagement; and the prospective son-in-law, currently staying with them, is too magnanimous to disillusion them, even to the point of sneaking out the bedroom window to make time with a perky postal worker: life goes on, at a jaunty clip. Jake Gyllenhaal, in the lead role, often brings to mind Hoffman in The Graduate (perhaps Hoffman's presence provides the hint), a beleaguered young man almost tongue-tied by his superior insight and honesty, until at last he administers a "truth enema" on the witness stand at the murder trial, a scene of excruciating embarrassment. With Ellen Pompeo and Holly Hunter. (2002) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.