| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
A- |
|
|
| Acting: |
A |
|
|
| Direction: |
A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A |
|
|
Painful to watch... but you can't look away
by Tom (movies profile)
Mar 11, 2006
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
The casting in a "message" movie like "The Accused" is critical, particularly the leads. If the role of the rape victim, Sarah Tobias, had been handed to a lesser actress than Jodie Foster - say, Darryl Hannah, or Demi Moore, accomplished performers to be sure, but lacking the range and skills of Foster - "The Accused" might have turned out to be a shrill, preachy, B-movie mess. If the role of the lead prosecutor, Kathryn Murphy, had been awarded to someone less capable than Kelly McGillis, someone who could not pull off the tricky act of meeting Foster's character halfway by film's end without compromising her own integrity, then "The Accused" might easily have become a one-note, trite, movie-of-the-week courtroom drama. With Foster and McGillis chewing up the screen, however, "The Accused" becomes an immensely watchable, deeply moving experience. True, some of the supporting characters were seemingly lifted right out of a B movie -- for example, listen to the cornball dialogue written for the District Attorney, Paul Rudolph (portrayed by Carmen Argenziano, who you might remember as the Garfield High principal in "Stand and Deliver"): "No! You don't get to use this office to pay your debts! No!" Please. And the story itself, about putting the spectators at a gang rape on trial for cheering the rapists on, isn't exactly unpredictable... you don't really think the defendants will be acquitted, do you? However, Foster's perforamnce is so brilliant - so angry, so vulnerable, so trusting, so tortured, so small-town, so hopeful, so bitter, so blunt and yet so thoughtful, all at once - that you can't help but be drawn into the drama despite yourself. Foster's Best Actress Oscar for this role was no fluke. Meahwhile, McGillis's portrayal of the subtle evolution of her character, from no-nonsense realist to avenging angel (well, almost), nearly matches Foster's in intensity. Director Jonathan Kaplan, who also helmed "Project X" (the chimpanzee movie, with Matthew Broderick) and the underrated "Immediate Family" (with Glenn Close and James Woods as mid-lifers trying to adopt a baby) in the late 1980s, but who has worked mostly in TV since then, keeps the story moving in The Accused; and while his choice of camera angles and shots is not very innovative, it's not distracting, either. Finally, Bernie Coulson, in his first movie, plays the lead witness for the prosecution, Kenneth Joyce, and is very convincing as a college kid struggling to choose between remaining loyal to his best friend, and standing up for the rights of a woman he has never met. "The Accused" works as both an indictment of sleazeballs who think that women should have about the same rights as a pinball machine... and as a powerful character study of two women who are more alike than they (or you) might have ever supposed at the movie's outset. (Side note: Did you know that McGillis was sexually assaulted by two men in her apartment in 1982? This real-life tragedy makes her performance in "The Accused" all the more compelling.) Here's betting that this movie stays with you for a long, long time. |
My Public Profile 
