And the film is entertaining, albeit in an extremely lowbrow sort of way. It's hard to say if her performance is uneven, or it's just the character. So what's good about this film? Fairuza Balk is interesting. In effect, he invites everyone to overact as much as they care to. He lets everyone wink at the audience and make cute little sideways comments to the camera. In fact, he has next to no ability to rein in his actors. Speaking of Brian Dennehy (who I like very much as an actor), he is not a good director.
Not that I have anything against the AA, but it just smacks of recent conversion fervor. At one point, his character references his time being sober as being virtually the exact same as Dennehy himself. The origin of this is embarrassingly close to the life of director/star Brian Dennehy. Then there's the shameless Alcoholics Anonymous propaganda. One of the lowest scenes is a retread of the old "death as an aphrodisiac" cliché. Scene after scene is right out of the cheapest, lowest quality pulp fiction. The judge's lines are inappropriate and unrealistic. The script of "Shadow of a Doubt" is bad. Excellent cinematography from Neil Roach and editing by Douglas Ibold also enhance this affair, making its weakness in the climactic courtroom scenes so disappointing, for when the cast must park itself before a judge, hackneyed scripting takes over, and the eventual post-juridical surprises lose their impact. The cast produces pleasure with nice performances from Michael Nussbaum and Joe Grifasi, while Bruce McGill dominates his scenes as is his custom, and only the generally reliable Ken Pogue somehow not being able to act his way out of a box this time it is, however, Fairuza Balk who contributes a star turn, by understanding her part and instinctively providing always appropriate shadings to her role. This is by way of being a vanity film for the always pleasing Dennehy who is seldom off the screen and who writes and directs here as well, and he is adept at building to a mood of suspense, although his acting range limitations are brought into focus. Brian Dennehy portrays Charlie Sloan, a recovering alcoholic defense attorney back from the lower depths and hired by an old flame, Robin Harwell (Bonnie Bedelia), to represent her stepdaughter Angel (Fairuza Balk) in a murder case wherein Angel has been arrested for the slaying of her father and Robin's husband, wealthy Harrison Harwell, a case less than promising for the defendant after being snared in hiding with bloody hands and clothing, and possibly coerced into giving a videotaped confession.
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