Joe Eszterhas has written here as silly a courtroom drama as he did in Jagged Edge, though with even less of deception and complication, and he counts on the soberness of the theme -- a naturalized American citizen charged with collaborationist war crimes -- to compel our respect. That, and possibly the reputation, as a hot-potato handler, of director Costa-Gavras, who does some tasteful work with autumn colors and coppery light but can't do much about the staticness and talkiness. Jessica Lange, as the accused's daughter and lawyer (a bad idea both judicially and dramatically), is characteristically loose with her emotions, always a little overready with a trill or a tremor. The accused himself, Armin Mueller-Stahl, is almost as affected in an opposite direction: talking too lengthily in breathless library tones. Solid contributions from Frederic Forrest as the prosecutor and J.S. Block as the scrupulously impartial Jewish judge. (1989) — Duncan Shepherd
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