Review of Legal Eagles

Legal Eagles (1986)
7/10
When we serve this community we do it with our pants on!
29 June 2005
**SPOILERS** Even though in the movie "Legal Eagles" Robert Redford as Tom Logan is a top-notch assistant D.A who's a shoo-in to get himself elected as the New York City District Attorney he's also an absent-minded stumble-bum. Who's constantly dropping things around, and on himself,in the home and office as well as always forgetting to take his keys out of his cars ignition when he parks and locks it. Redford or Tom Logan solves that very annoying problem later in the film by smashing in his car's side-widow with a garbage can.

Being picked to prosecute the case against young Chelsea Deardon, Daryl Hannah, in her being indited for the attempted robbery of a painting, from a Mr. Forrester's ,John McMartin, apartment. Chealsea through her defense-attorney Laura Kelly, Debra winger,claimed that the painting by her late dad Sebastian, James Hordle, was left to her by him as a birthday present on the evening that his loft and gallery went up in flames. It's also brought out that that painting, together with scores of other Deardon works, was reportedly destroyed in the fire.

Laura gets Tom to listen to her clients story pointing out how could Chelsea steal something that wasn't supposed to exist? Tom is also amazed that not only does Forrester have the "destroyed" painting but, that according to Chelsea, that the back of the painting has an inscription on it by it's artist dedicating it to her. The next day as both Tom and Laura go to talk to Forrester about these strange inconsistencies their both shocked to hear from him that he's dropping all charges against Chelsea.

Wanting to inspect the painting to see if there's an inscription on the back of it proving that Chelsea's father left it over to her Tom & Laura find out that the painting was just sold to the Taft Gallary which is owned by a former associate of the late Mr. Deardon Victor Taft,Terrence Stamp. What at first looked to be a fraudulent case of art manipulation turns out later to be a case of robbery arson and murder that goes back some 25 years.

There's a genuine chemistry between Robert Redford and Debra Winger in their scenes together without them ever engaging in anything more then discussing the case that their handling. And the gorgeous and leggy, if a bit spaced-out, Daryl Hannah as Chelsea makes you forget what's going on in the film,like she did Tom,whenever she was on the screen or in his bedroom.

We begin to realize later in the film that someone is trying to pin a number of murders, Taft & Forrester, on Chelsea and then with her taking the rap for them get what he's really after: the painting left to her by her dad which is now estimated to be worth millions but who can that person be?

The ending of "Legal Eagles" leaves you a bit confused to what Chelsea really had to do, if anything at all, with the death of Forrester and possibly Taft, who was also her secret lover. Since we assumed up to that point that the case was already solved with the bad guy in the movie ending up in flames and underwater.

Since Chelsea was so unpredictable and unstable you had, like both Tom & Laura, to take whatever she said with not just a grain but an entire truck-load of salt.
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