The movie opens with James Brolin as a grieving widower and an architect whose firm has been taken over by a wealthy businessman, with the help of a big-shot lawyer. Brolin's character, who has largely kept to himself after his wife's death, reluctantly goes out for drinks with colleagues from work, including a homely, matronly, long-time female associate of his at the firm. At the bar, Brolin is accosted by a beautiful blonde young woman who says a fraternity-looking punk has been bothering her. She rushes Brolin into an embrace, then hurries him out through the kitchen and to a car in the alley, where she seduces him. She phones him at work the next day, and they meet for dinner. Afterward, they drive to a large, fancy house.
Brolin wakes up in the middle of the night to find the young woman gone. Wandering around the house, he discovers the body of the wealthy businessman, stabbed in the back in an upstairs bedroom. He rushes to his associate's home, where she lives with her mother. He decides to contact hard-as-nails defense attorney Meg Foster and turn himself in.
At the ensuing trial, all evidence points to Brolin. The young blonde cannot be traced, and the businessman's blonde wife testifies that it was she herself who had the affair with Brolin. No one has seen them together. But her story is backed up by hotel records showing a reservation in her name that happened to have been next to a room in which Brolin stayed on a recent business trip. Brolin's fingerprints are at the scene of the crime, and his DNA is found in what turns out to have been the wife's car. There is talk that the businessman intended to replace or demote Brolin at the firm.
While being transported back to prison from court one day, Brolin sees a bus billboard with the young woman's picture on it. He tells his lawyer, but she is ready to throw up her hands with the case and advises him to plead guilty to manslaughter and take five years in jail.
Frustrated, Brolin manages to fool the guards into thinking he has been released on bail. Once free, he sets out for the advertising/modeling agency that he learns from a quick phone call was responsible for the billboard. He identifies the blonde woman's picture in a file, with her name and address written on the back. At her apartment, she confesses that she is a part-time model and escort who agreed to set up Brolin. She shows him a photograph she was given of him and his wife, with a third person's face torn off. They arrange to meet the next day, by which time the blonde says she can find out who hired her.
Brolin's lawyer, against her better judgment, agrees to let him sleep on the couch at her place that night. There is a silly scene where Brolin's character acts like a high school kid with a crush, as he looks longingly through frosted glass at Foster supposedly taking her clothes off in the next room, before shaking off the reverie and settling in on the couch. (The only nudity in the film is in the earlier, brief scene when Brolin and the young blonde spend time together at what turns out to be the businessman's house.) From there, the movie heads into its conclusion with a series of thin, hasty, choppy scenes. The next day, things go badly. Brolin ends up at his old office at night asking for help from his associate. When he finds the other half of the torn photograph, the pieces begin to come together on how and why he was set up. It was a conspiracy that included someone close to him who was supposedly duped into helping. Even though the frame was air-tight, the person claims, unbelievably, "I didn't know it would go this far, they said you would never be convicted." The movie ends with fist-fights and shootings, as Brolin confronts the culprits.
The movie can best be described as lightweight and lackluster. The characters, dialogue, and situations are not particularly clever, original, interesting, or believable. They simply keep the story moving in a linear, surface-level manner.
Brolin, acting earnest, befuddled, and wronged, and Foster, acting aloof, frosty, and tough, are adequate in thin, undeveloped roles. The rest of the cast is completely forgettable, playing non-descript or cardboard characters with little screen time. This is especially true of the drippy D.A. The movie's portrayal of a prosecutor (usually a meaty role) is the least impressive that I can recall of any courtroom drama.
The rushed, put-up scene where Brolin meets the blonde at the bar and within minutes is having sex with her in a car is implausible, as is his escape from prison. Also disappointing are the scenes, which only undercut the characters, where Foster unprofessionally gives up on Brolin in the middle of the trial, even as he has found a critical clue that she and her detectives themselves should have found and should be following up on, and then after his prison break equally suddenly and for no reason becomes convinced of his innocence. Brolin's unraveling of the solution to the murder, like the plot itself, appears hasty and superficial, dependent on a gift clue falling into his lap by accident.
With the elaborate frame-up, the movie looked like it might have some ingredients of an interesting murder mystery. At times, the cast and story were mildly entertaining. But it quickly became clear that the characters and story had only been developed in the most shallow of ways. In the end, the movie had too little substance to be satisfying.
Brolin wakes up in the middle of the night to find the young woman gone. Wandering around the house, he discovers the body of the wealthy businessman, stabbed in the back in an upstairs bedroom. He rushes to his associate's home, where she lives with her mother. He decides to contact hard-as-nails defense attorney Meg Foster and turn himself in.
At the ensuing trial, all evidence points to Brolin. The young blonde cannot be traced, and the businessman's blonde wife testifies that it was she herself who had the affair with Brolin. No one has seen them together. But her story is backed up by hotel records showing a reservation in her name that happened to have been next to a room in which Brolin stayed on a recent business trip. Brolin's fingerprints are at the scene of the crime, and his DNA is found in what turns out to have been the wife's car. There is talk that the businessman intended to replace or demote Brolin at the firm.
While being transported back to prison from court one day, Brolin sees a bus billboard with the young woman's picture on it. He tells his lawyer, but she is ready to throw up her hands with the case and advises him to plead guilty to manslaughter and take five years in jail.
Frustrated, Brolin manages to fool the guards into thinking he has been released on bail. Once free, he sets out for the advertising/modeling agency that he learns from a quick phone call was responsible for the billboard. He identifies the blonde woman's picture in a file, with her name and address written on the back. At her apartment, she confesses that she is a part-time model and escort who agreed to set up Brolin. She shows him a photograph she was given of him and his wife, with a third person's face torn off. They arrange to meet the next day, by which time the blonde says she can find out who hired her.
Brolin's lawyer, against her better judgment, agrees to let him sleep on the couch at her place that night. There is a silly scene where Brolin's character acts like a high school kid with a crush, as he looks longingly through frosted glass at Foster supposedly taking her clothes off in the next room, before shaking off the reverie and settling in on the couch. (The only nudity in the film is in the earlier, brief scene when Brolin and the young blonde spend time together at what turns out to be the businessman's house.) From there, the movie heads into its conclusion with a series of thin, hasty, choppy scenes. The next day, things go badly. Brolin ends up at his old office at night asking for help from his associate. When he finds the other half of the torn photograph, the pieces begin to come together on how and why he was set up. It was a conspiracy that included someone close to him who was supposedly duped into helping. Even though the frame was air-tight, the person claims, unbelievably, "I didn't know it would go this far, they said you would never be convicted." The movie ends with fist-fights and shootings, as Brolin confronts the culprits.
The movie can best be described as lightweight and lackluster. The characters, dialogue, and situations are not particularly clever, original, interesting, or believable. They simply keep the story moving in a linear, surface-level manner.
Brolin, acting earnest, befuddled, and wronged, and Foster, acting aloof, frosty, and tough, are adequate in thin, undeveloped roles. The rest of the cast is completely forgettable, playing non-descript or cardboard characters with little screen time. This is especially true of the drippy D.A. The movie's portrayal of a prosecutor (usually a meaty role) is the least impressive that I can recall of any courtroom drama.
The rushed, put-up scene where Brolin meets the blonde at the bar and within minutes is having sex with her in a car is implausible, as is his escape from prison. Also disappointing are the scenes, which only undercut the characters, where Foster unprofessionally gives up on Brolin in the middle of the trial, even as he has found a critical clue that she and her detectives themselves should have found and should be following up on, and then after his prison break equally suddenly and for no reason becomes convinced of his innocence. Brolin's unraveling of the solution to the murder, like the plot itself, appears hasty and superficial, dependent on a gift clue falling into his lap by accident.
With the elaborate frame-up, the movie looked like it might have some ingredients of an interesting murder mystery. At times, the cast and story were mildly entertaining. But it quickly became clear that the characters and story had only been developed in the most shallow of ways. In the end, the movie had too little substance to be satisfying.