Consenting Adults

Alan J. Pakula was a fine film director. His credits include All the President’s Men, which I watched when it first came out and much enjoyed. An early success was To Kill a Mockingbird, subject of a recent post here, and this prompted me to watch a film he made many years later, and not long before his death in a freak car accident, the 1992 movie Consenting Adults.

The film has a good cast, led by Kevin Spacey and Kevin Kline, and deals with two suburban neighbours who are both married to extremely glamorous women. Their male bonding leads Spacey to suggest a bit of wife-swopping. At first Kline is horrified by the proposed betrayal But he begins to warm to the idea, encouraged - it seems – by his own wife, and Spacey’s.. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that things are not what they seem, and murder ensues.

I’m afraid this was a film when the plot, although appealing in some ways, was woefully lacking in credibility. When Kline is set up for a murder he didn’t commit, why do the police and even his own lawyer take no interest in his defence? Not much of it made sense to me. My sympathy for Kline was also tempered by the sheer silliness of some of his behaviour.

It’s a well-made and rather glossy film, but as a thriller, sadly lacking. And To Kill a Mockingbird it most definitely is not. Pakula was capable of much better.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel of the last century, and the film of the book is equally revered. So it’s quite a confession to say that I’ve never watched the movie – an omission I’ve just repaired.

Gregory Peck is, of course, superb as Atticus Finch, the lawyer who takes on the defence of a young black man charged with raping a poor white girl. The court scene is famous (if, one hopes, improbable) and the fact that the story is told by Atticus’s young daughter Scout adds an extra layer of significance.

As a lawyer, I recognise Atticus as one of the great legal figures of fiction. It’s a wonderful story, and shows how good ‘legal fiction’, or, at least, a story with a legal element, can be.

Famously, Harper Lee has never published another book, and she has long declined to discuss her masterpiece. I have to say I find this baffling – if I wrote a book half as good, I’d find it almost impossible to keep quiet. And I love writing too much to contemplate giving up on it. But each to his or her own. Even with a single book, Harper Lee has achieved something most writers can only dream of. Her writing has helped to shape attitudes – and for the better.