JUST CAUSE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language, thematic elements

Rated:

Everyone has at some point had an argument over the dinner table about the death penalty. There are those who support it, and those who oppose it. Then there are the movies that take sides. Just Cause might seem like just another thriller about a defense attorney attempting to get an innocent man off death row. But it's much more than that and whatever the critics say, it's actually intelligent entertainment.

After being accused of the rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl in the Everglades, Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood) is facing the death chamber. In a last attempt to win an appeal, he sends his grandmother in search of defense attorney Paul Armstrong (Sean Connery). Having retired from the courtroom twenty-five years earlier and taken to teaching instead, Armstrong has no desire to return to trial cases. Happily married to a former prosecutor (Kate Capshaw) and with a beautiful little girl (Scarlett Johansson), his interest is only peaked upon learning that he's the young man's last hope. An advocate against the death penalty, he travels down to Louisiana to look into the investigation... and finds numerous reasons for an appeal. The confession was allegedly beaten out of Bobby Earl by local law enforcement (Laurence Fishburne), and the witness cannot remember the car she saw drive off with the little girl.

Then too, there's Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris), a murdering psychopath on death row after being convicted of multiple assault-homicides throughout the surrounding states. The artistic and deranged madman spends hours paining patterns on his cell walls, and claimed in a moment of malicious victory to Bobby Earl that he killed the girl and dumped her body. From there it propels into a thriller as Armstrong attempts to unravel the truth, little realizing that he could become a pawn in a dangerous game of chess in the meantime. I had no difficulty determining what was going to happen, but that's because I would have written it the exact same way. The performances here are gripping, but the real scene-stealer is Harris. His light-colored eyes can be tranquil one moment and filled with a demonic rage the next. I have rarely seen such a convincing serial killer.

Thirty f-words taint the script, along with some graphic violence (mutilated bodies are shown in photographs and crime scenes). The rape and murder of a little girl is discussed at length numerous times. A madman threatens a woman and her daughter with rape (in veiled references). The police beat a confession out of a suspect. A woman is forced to touch a man's crotch in a hostage situation. It is implied someone is eaten by alligators. A naked man is shown hanging in his prison cell, with a brief glimpse of his bare backside. I was able to watch this on cable and missed most of the problematic content, but there are some images that will linger with you -- such as discovering mutilated, rotting bodies in a shack in the swamp. 

There is some discussion early in the film about what happens to a body when it is electrocuted (the official death sentence method of the Victorian era), and certain aspects of the film do seem to carry an anti-death penalty undercurrent, however, the intelligent viewer could look at the final moments and conclude otherwise. Racism also becomes prevalent throughout much of the investigation. I found it to be one of the more exciting dramas I have seen of late, because it blends legal maneuvering and crime investigation with thriller aspects: kidnapping, attempted murder, and frantic chase sequences. I appreciated that the characters grew and developed throughout, and the sense of anticipation and dread was increased as it built toward the climax. Some of it seems a bit contrived, but for fans of the genre it's sure to please.