Roundabout trip
By Davin Arul
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
Rating(out of 5): * *
(Tayangan Unggul)
Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Michael Douglas, Amber Tamblyn, Orlando Jones, Joel Moore
In this remake of the 1956 Fritz Lang-directed film noir, an investigative reporter sets himself up to take a murder rap – just so he can bring down a crooked District Attorney.
Mark Hunter (Douglas) has been winning too many cases based upon last-minute forensic evidence being "discovered", and CJ Nicholas (Metcalfe) is convinced he is planting the incriminating stuff.
STILL LIFE: 'Note the artist's bold use of red and the contrasting islands of yellow...'
So with the help of his buddy Corey (Moore), CJ sets out to set himself up as a "murderer" and deliberately plants circumstantial evidence that will make him a suspect in a prostitute's murder.
To safeguard himself, he has Corey videotape him planting the stuff, while holding up the day's paper to show it was all done after the killing.
Around that time, I figured out there would be a twist in this tale – not because of an abundance of smarts on my part, but because the set-up is so heavy-handed that it becomes annoyingly obvious.
In the spirit of the movie, I immediately SMSed my theory (don't worry, I don't usually text during movies) to a colleague who was at the same press screening, and told her to check her phone messages after the movie.
Look, I have nothing against twists in movies, but hey – let's save those sharp story turns for when they are really necessary, okay?
The twist here is not only unnecessary (the story has enough content to propel itself along nicely, thank you), but it also left me so unsympathetic toward any of the characters from so early on that the whole experience became quite … hollow.
DEATH ROW: 'I guess the whole "John Tucker Must Die" thing has finally caught up with me.'
Metcalfe, best known for a recurring role on Desperate Housewives and the teen revenge comedy John Tucker Must Die, seems more boyish here than he did in the movies where he was supposed to be playing young chaps.
No Benjamin Button-type phenomenon here, however; it's more likely that because the role calls for considerably older casting, his youthfulness seems more pronounced.
There is some cute (I would hesitate to call it clever) interaction between the characters, and Douglas masterfully makes his D.A. character really as suspiciously slick right from the get-go, as CJ observes.
But then that unseemly twist and all the little clues keep popping up, and Hyams – who also adapted the screenplay from the original – would have done well to leave out a few of those.
It's almost as if he didn't want to be accused of pulling the twist from out of nowhere, so he went to great pains to put in all those little hints – which in the end only do his efforts a disservice.
But Hyams also needs to catch some flak for having characters do silly things, just so that he can insert an action scene when things start to get ho-hum.
Silliest among these occurs when a bad guy tries to stunt-drive and run down heroine Ella (Tamblyn) in a deserted parking lot when he could have just stepped out of the car and shot her.
Yet all this, too, is in keeping with the spirit of the story and its characters, all of whom are happy to take the longest path en route to an abrupt conclusion.
Surfing: http://www.beyondareasonabledoubtmovie.com/
