The Trial: Miss and miss

Despite their anonymity, most of the the cast in the film does a decent job filling their characters' shoes.

For every enthusiastic Hollywood fan, there comes a point when you don’t want to watch another blockbuster starring a surgically enhanced actress who was paid $20 million to show some skin. You just want to watch a no-frills, uncomplicated film. When I hit this point I picked up a little-known film called The Trial — to see whether I still had the stomach for simple cinematic fare or not.

Turns out I don’t. The Trial stars Matthew Modine as Kent McClain, a small town lawyer who is still suffering from depression three years after his wife and sons were killed in a road accident. McClain has packed up his law firm and is tidying up his loose ends- because he is preparing to kill himself. Fortunately for him, a friendly judge dumps a new case in his lap. McClain finds that he has to defend a young man accused of murdering his girlfriend. The presumed killer, played by Randy Wayne, reminds McClain of his dead son- and so, emotionally bond firmly established, investigating the case slowly brings the long-suffering lawyer back to life.

Now, you may be asking- who are these actors? Matthew Modine is still relatively unknown, though he has played bit parts in many successful movies, like Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Any Given Sunday (1999). He of the unfortunate name, Randy Wayne, has appeared in TV dramas like “True Blood” and “Numb3rs,” but is completely unmemorable — perhaps it has to do with the fact that he really can’t act. The rest of the cast is filled out by similarly fresh faces, with Rance Howard playing the judge and Clare Carey playing McClain’s love interest.

Despite their anonymity, most of the cast does a decent job filling their characters’ shoes. The bad guys in the movie are slightly more compelling than the good guys though, mostly because Modine doesn’t break out of his grieving widower box too often. The movie’s real problem lies in the pace: there is no real action in the movie, as the murder itself is not dramatised, and the director should have made up for that by enhancing the anticipation and the whodunit feel of the film. Instead, the movie is crowded by long, steady pans across the courtroom and extended silences.

All in all, the film is interesting enough but uninspiring. The plot twists aren’t twisty enough and the viewer is not given any reason to empathise with the killer, which in turn makes us wonder why McClain empathises with him either. On the bright side, The Trial is one of those few movies made these days that you can watch with the entire family, toddler and grandma included. The film contains no nudity, no violence, no swearing, and no lewd jokes- no wonder it flopped at the box office.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2010.