CONTAINS SPOILERS
This movie did not fulfill a single one of my expectations, although I don't mean that in a necessarily negative way. It was just different from what I anticipated when I began watching. I figured on a straightforward courtroom drama where everything is much more clean-cut than it is in real life. Well, that's not what you get with this movie. The people are human; the situations are ambiguous, and you don't end up necessarily rooting for anyone, let alone for the person you thought you would root for (that would be Jimmy Stewart and his client). Here we have a lawyer, played masterfully by Stewart, who actually doubts his client's case, and yet defends him, which is a surprising bit of realism; a husband who's terribly jealous either of the rape or the affair (or both?) of his wife; a wife who goes around "free and easy" (or "free and sleazy" as the case may be) -- but does she deserve to be raped? DOES she get raped? Who beat her? And then the end is a shock, in that it's NOT the end. It's not typical Hollywood, and at first I didn't like that, but I think I'm changing my mind. This may just ruin me for typical courtroom dramas. :)
Another "undecided": the music. At times I loved it, and at others it was definitely a negative distraction from the movie.
This movie did not fulfill a single one of my expectations, although I don't mean that in a necessarily negative way. It was just different from what I anticipated when I began watching. I figured on a straightforward courtroom drama where everything is much more clean-cut than it is in real life. Well, that's not what you get with this movie. The people are human; the situations are ambiguous, and you don't end up necessarily rooting for anyone, let alone for the person you thought you would root for (that would be Jimmy Stewart and his client). Here we have a lawyer, played masterfully by Stewart, who actually doubts his client's case, and yet defends him, which is a surprising bit of realism; a husband who's terribly jealous either of the rape or the affair (or both?) of his wife; a wife who goes around "free and easy" (or "free and sleazy" as the case may be) -- but does she deserve to be raped? DOES she get raped? Who beat her? And then the end is a shock, in that it's NOT the end. It's not typical Hollywood, and at first I didn't like that, but I think I'm changing my mind. This may just ruin me for typical courtroom dramas. :)
Another "undecided": the music. At times I loved it, and at others it was definitely a negative distraction from the movie.