SHADOW OF A DOUBT

US, 1995, 92 minutes, Colour.
Brian Dennehy, Bonnie Bedelia, Fairuza Balk, Mike Nussbaum, Joe Grifasi, Kevin Dunn, Ken Pogue, Bruce Mc Gill.
Directed by Brian Dennehy.

Shadow of a Doubt is a courtroom drama, Brian Dennehy portraying a has-been lawyer, alcoholic, who is asked by a former love, played by Bonnie Bedelia, to defend her daughter against a murder charge of killing her father. The daughter is played by Fairuza Balk.

The film is interesting in that it seems that Dennehy’s character has no hope of winning his case, his opponents setting up a campaign against him and blackening his name. However, this is a star vehicle for Dennehy who wrote and directed the film (as he did with some of the series of Jack Reed, the former priest detective in Chicago).

The film has familiar material – but this kind of story and development of characters always works on television.

1. An entertaining telemovie? The case? The law? Courts? Deception?

2. The title, the ironies and how they applied to the case and characters?

3. The work of Brian Dennehy, writing and directing, starring?

4. The prologue, the death? The arrest of Angel, the various possibilities? Clues?

5. Brian Dennehy as Charlie Sloan? At the funeral? His attending AA meetings? People with holds on him? Plans?

6. The case, Robin and the come-on, Angel and her desperation? His needs? The arguments? The video confession – coerced or not? The evidence of Angel with the clothes and the bloodstains? The role of the prosecutor, the hearing and the performance? The effect? Sidney Sherman and his help, the psychiatrist, the records? Sexual issues? Angel and the advance? Robin and the advance? The complexities, the abortion and mental state?

7. The court, the implication of Robin? The incrimination by the judge? The prosecutor?

8. The character of Angel, her advances, girlish, honest, on the stand, admitting the truth? The issue of being who you are? The verdict?

9. The psychiatrist, sex behaviour? The end – and the ‘told you so’ attitude?

10. Charlie Sloan and the law, the attacks, the police and the drinking, proving the case, his achievement? The disillusionment? The final visit?

11. The portrayal of the court scenes, the jury, the prosecutor, the judge? Justice, the law and the truth? The film as a moral fable?