Wednesday 9 April 2014

“Reasonable Doubt” conjures a clever plot






Reviewed by Nancy Snipper


This well-crafted film weaves a really unusual plot where what is obvious is not the truth. Directed by Peter Howitt, the film – a Canada-Germany co-production – has a dark tone that immediately grabs our interest. The plot adds to the intrigue.
Rising up the legal ladder is attorney Mitch Brockden (Dominic Cooper). After a night out with the guys, he gets into his car and a battered body hits the front of his car. Brockden is drunk and thinks he’s the one that has caused the victim to hover between life and death. He makes a phone call to call the police but leaves the battered man alone.
The police find Clinton Davis (Samuel L. Jackson) in a van with blood and the victim inside. He is accused of killing him. His tools are covered in blood and Davis himself is suffering from having watched his wife and child get tortured and killed in a home invasion.


But Brockden feels he did not kill the man. He thinks he did by hitting him in the hit- and- run accident. The lawyer’s step-brother, a parolee, comes forward and claims he was one the one who made the phone call to the police and he claims to have witnessed the accident. He steers his own step-brother away from the picture. There is much irony for when Davis in brought to trial, it is Brockden who must prosecute him, but during the trial, he seems to be defending him, and as he casts doubt on the alleged perpetrator, we see how afraid he really is. Will the phone call he made give his own voice away as the true driver that supposedly killed the man?
The plot thickens when Brockden digs into Davis’s past and ties evidence to the true guilt of Davis who tortures parolees who have not protected their families. Davis ends up hurting Brockden’s step-brother, but in the end, our lawyer protects his family, including his wife and baby. Davis nearly gets away with annihilating the family, but the ending is a happy one. The movie has some pretty interesting plot twists that demand good acting. Unfortunately, the stars seemed to doubt their own ability roles on and off the screen. Still, there isn’t a dull moment in the story.



(This film was viewed, compliments of Le SuperClub Videotron, 5000, rue Wellington, in Verdun,  Quebec.)
(Ce film a été visionné, avec les compliments de Le SuperClub Videotron, 5000, rue Wellington, à Verdun, Québec.)

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