Word: jakes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sweltering Mississippi--the glistening people look as if they shower with Vaseline--the story is simple, yet stirring: rednecks rape a black girl; the girl's father, Carl Lee (Samuel L. Jackson), retaliates with murder; he goes on trial in a racially volatile atmosphere. Enter his idealistic young lawyer, Jake (Matthew McConaughey); his mentor, Lucien (Donald Sutherland); the ruthless prosecutor (Kevin Spacey); and a Klan member or two (e.g. Kiefer Sutherland)--the story's ready-made. Sandra Bullock weaves her way through the story as Jake's indispensable assistant...
...members in a shop window; Spacey's prosecutor Buckley brandishing a bulky gun to make a point; or Samuel L. Jackson's face at any of his many stages of pop-eyed rage. Other touches involve the bathing of a Klan member tete-a-tete in ethereal light or Jake's haggard face in the lined shade of half-open blinds...
...actors ease for the most part into the set, often flat characters that surround the charged plot line, with occasional exceptions. Lawyer Jake, despite death threats or a torched house, persists in defending, against all logic, and McConaughey's boyish good looks and exquisite hair carry him through admirably. Yet it is often more compelling to watch Kiefer Sutherland, a brother of a slain redneck, encountering evil greater than himself during his Klan warm-up meeting, or Chris Cooper (again as a sheriff, markedly different from his "Lone Star" role) grimacing his way through shock and pain...
...billing would indicate; and second, when we do, we wish we wouldn't. Trying through rushed, distracted delivery to evoke the smart-aleck single-mindedness of her law student character, she rapidly becomes irritating and uninteresting. Not helping is the romantic story line between her character and Jake that fizzles yet remains referred to later...
...reckons without a factor that used to animate many of our best movies and many of our better moments in life: idealism. In this instance, it arises in the unlikely form of Jake Brigance, who is played by the suddenly and, on the basis of this performance, deservedly chic Matthew McConaughey. Brigance is a young and desperately unsuccessful lawyer, but he is all that Hailey can afford. Before the movie, based on John Grisham's first novel, is over, crosses will burn on the lawn and crucial witnesses will falter on the stand. Worse, Brigance's home will be destroyed...