The problem is that the movie is too dumb to be taken seriously, and thus too dumb to be funny.

Briefly, the story takes place in New York. Robert Redford is an assistant District Attorney about to be promoted to be the DA. Debra Winger is a defense attorney, and Daryl Hannah is a young woman with emotional problems, and is Debra Winger's client. The plot involves a fire 20 years ago, when Daryl Hannah was eight, a fire that killed her artist father and purportedly destroyed a large number of his paintings. This experience left Daryl Hannah traumatized, but all is not as it seems, and now, 20 years later, Daryl Hannah is first accused of attempted theft and later of murder.

Unfortunately, the plot involves many elements that simply don't make sense. I won't go into detail, but Roger Ebert does a good job of listing four different major things that make the plot completely unbelievable.

As well as the story being dumb I found some of the scenes that were supposed to be funny to be anything but.

For example, Robert Redford is a weekend father to a teenage daughter. At one point his ex-wife threatens to go to court to prevent him from seeing their daughter. Robert Redford makes a telephone call to his ex-wife's home and starts an angry monologue of threats about how he'll take her apart in court. Then he realizes that he's actually talking to his daughter! This mistake is apparently supposed to be hilarious. Ha, ha.

In another scene Robert Redford and Debra Winger are together and see one of the bad guys. Robert Redford takes off on foot to try to catch him. Debra Winger, who doesn't know how to drive a car, feels it necessary for her to jump into Robert Redford's car and try to follow him. She makes a wrong turn and finds herself going the wrong way into traffic on a large heavily trafficked street. There follows one minute of her frantically dodging cars at the last moment. Very funny. Ha, ha, ha.

This movie could have been a fairly good romantic thriller if they had fixed the plot and not tried to be a comedy. But the dumb plot and the unfunny attempts at comedy make it a complete waste of time.

Rennie Petersen

Adjectives well chosen :)
Review date: 2003-06-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

This movie is one of my long-time favourites. Although the storyline is not very easy to follow at some points, the acting of Redford and Winger are excellent. Watch out especially for the looks and the quick remarks they make! Another character worth mentioning is the daughter of Logan (Redford) - a witty teenager who sees things from the most hopeful point of view. And if you have a keen eye for subtleties that show the human side of these lawyers (especially the "can't sleep", the tap-dancing and the kitchen scenes), you are bound to smile and laugh a lot on this movie.

Product Details/Specifications