Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Sean Connery | ... | Paul Armstrong | |
Laurence Fishburne | ... | Sheriff Tanny Brown | |
Kate Capshaw | ... | Laurie Prentiss Armstrong | |
Blair Underwood | ... | Bobby Earl | |
Ed Harris | ... | Blair Sullivan | |
Christopher Murray | ... | Detective T.J. Wilcox | |
Ruby Dee | ... | Evangeline | |
Scarlett Johansson | ... | Katie Armstrong | |
Daniel J. Travanti | ... | Warden | |
Ned Beatty | ... | McNair | |
Liz Torres | ... | Delores Rodriguez | |
Lynne Thigpen | ... | Ida Conklin | |
Taral Hicks | ... | Lena Brown | |
Victor Slezak | ... | Sgt. Rogers | |
Kevin McCarthy | ... | Phil Prentiss |
Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood) is facing the electric chair for the murder of a young girl. Eight years after the crime, he calls in Paul Armstrong (Sir Sean Connery), a professor of law, to help prove his innocence. Armstrong quickly uncovers some overlooked evidence to present to the local police, but they aren't interested, Bobby was their killer. Written by Rob Hartill
The film is mediocre, but seeing Ed Harris' performance as a manipulative serial killer (I'm not giving anything away by telling you this) is worth the entire movie. Too often serial killers are played as geniuses--Jack in "The Profiler" or Kevin Spacey's character in "Seven"; Harris creates a malignant redneck monster that really will startle and chill you. No one goes from zero to sixty like Harris since George C. Scott left us; in this film he modulates his voice amazingly, sounding quietly venomous one moment and then thundering like a fire and brimstone Southern minister. In Connery's case, it's just bad casting: he plays an academic consulting lawyer (a la Dershowitz {sp?}) who combats Fishburne's menacing but canny Southern cop. Connery's other roles and the notion of him they have created in us make it impossible for him to play the effete lawyer that the script seems to call for.