Reasonable Doubt (2014) - movie review

Reasonable Doubt is a recent movie, and the fact that it reached the television screen very quickly is, I'm afraid, easily explained. It begins with an intriguing situation slightly reminiscent of that brilliant Kenneth Fearing novel The Big Clock (splendidly filmed twice), but an attempt to ring the changes  on the basic storyline descends into bathos long before the end. The director, Peter Howitt, once an actor in Bread, and later director of that truly excellent film Sliding Doors, apparently decided to direct this film under a pseudonym, and you don't need to be Inspector Morse to figure out why.

The film begins in a Chicago courtroom. We're introduced to Mitch, a young hot-shot lawyer played by Dominic Cooper. I'm afraid I took an instant dislike to Mitch, and his "brilliant" closing speech, which seemed to me madly unprofessional. But what do I know? After all, lucky old Mitch, has never lost a case. He is married with a baby, but his family life never becomes interesting to the viewer, and this failure to encourage us to empathise with Mitch is fatal to enjoyment.

Mitch goes out and gets drunk with his pals, and then knocks someone down. He calls for help before fleeing the scene, but the victim dies. Before long Mitch finds himself prosecuting a chap (Samuel L. Jackson, who is less compelling than usual) accused of murdering the victim, and has to find a way to exculpate the falsely accused defendant. From there, the plot thickens...

Unfortunately, we don't really care about any of the characters, and the twists in the plot seem contrived and unsatisfactory. With the basic premise, a decent screenplay could have produced better results, but although I very much prefer to avoid giving negative reviews,, Reasonable Doubt has to rank as a very weak effort. I don't always agree with the verdicts of the Rotten Tomatoes site, but in this case an approval rating of 13% seems about right. However, my next film review will return to positivity, and will be of something I can safely recommend.

Run, Lola, Run - film review

Story structure is a subject that fascinates me, and this is what led me to watch Run, Lola, Run, a 1998 film shot in Berlin and written and directed by Tom Tykwer. Intriguing and original, this film really gripped me from start to finish. It deals with a number of themes, but above all it addresses the question of how chance events can have a profound effect on lives. This is a subject tackled very well by the hugely enjoyable Gwyneth Paltrow movie Sliding Doors, and Run, Lola, Run is just as good.

Franka Polenta plays Lola, a feisty and charismatic young woman whose dodgy boyfriend has made a total mess of his part in a crime. He's lost a lot of money as a result, and the bad guys are just about to find out, and make him pay. They are likely to show up in twenty minutes. Lola tells him, in effect, not to panic. She will sort things out and dash over to meet him within that timescale.

We are supplied with three different versions of what happens on Lola's run. In each of the stories, she encounters the same people, but the outcomes differ strikingly. The compressed timescale, pulsating soundtrack and the sight of Lola dashing frantically through the streets of Berlin keeps the viewer gripped. What is going to happen this time? The boyfriend is a rather pathetic loser, and Lola has a crazy streak,but never mind. We want a happy ending - of course we do. Unfortunately, it's not always available.

This is one of the best foreign films I've seen in a long time. As long as you buy into the premise, it's engaging from start to finish. Polenta is terrific, and the variations in the storylines (which have many connecting elements) are compelling. If you needed any reminder about the lottery element in life's big decisions, Run, Lola, Run supplies it. I found this a really thought-provoking film, and I can strongly recommend it.

Sliding Doors

I really enjoyed Sliding Doors, a ten year old movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah. The premise is fascinating: that so much in life depends on mere chance. In the story, everything hinges on whether Paltrow’s character catches a Tube train, or is seconds too late to prevent the train doors sliding shut in her face.

Sliding Doors is a romantic comedy, with a sharp script (the writer and director was Peter Howit, whom I remember as Joey Boswell in the Scouse comedy ‘Bread’) and winning performances from Paltrow and the other cast members as two divergent stories are played out in highly watchable fashion. But I found it not just good entertainment, but also rather thought-provoking.

It’s the premise that fascinates me. Years ago, I saw an Alan Ayckbourn play (can’t recall the name without checking) which featured a series of variations on a basic story-line. The reviews of Sliding Doors that I’ve seen refer to a Polish film called Blind Chance which had a similar idea, and even a Lord Dunsany play from the 1920s on essentially the same ‘road not taken’

But what about crime fiction? It seems to me that the concept would adapt very effectively to our genre. Surely it’s already been done. But I can’t think of a single example – is anyone reading this blog able to come up with any?