Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman), a man with the unusual and
questionable privilege of being the oldest prisoner on
Mississippi's death row, is going to go down that long and
lonely corridor toward the finality of the gas chamber blues in
28 days unless his grandson, the young and virginal lawyer
Adam Shaw (Chris O'Donnell), can do something about it.
Using his wits and every legal strategy he can muster up,
Adam pushes ahead, but seems to be going nowhere fast.
Along the way he unravels and discovers his family's past and
confronts his own grandfather, who happens to be the
abovementioned Cayhall, with the past in a way that leads to a
new understanding of a selection of various atrocities for
which he has been responsible. Naturally, the Klan plays a
role in the proceedings. Sam, no matter how you cut it, is a
white racist from the old school of burn a cross and pass the
ammunition.
Cayhall was condemned for a bombing in 1967 which resulted
in the death of two children. (As usual the penal system has
given him a very long time to think about his crimes before
administering the final death blow.) Adam has come to
believe, however, that Sam may be innocent of this particular
crime and hopes to prove this by discovering who the real
bomber was. Unfortunately, among the many obstacles in his
path is the fact that the present governor of the state is David
McCallister, a man who built his reputation in earlier days
upon the trial and conviction of Cayhall. He now stands as the
one man who can grant Cayhall a reprieve. Adam winds up
developing a close relationship with McCallister's aide Nora
Stark (Lela Rochon) who may or may not have some
information that holds a key to winning clemency for the old
man. As the history unravels and leads toward the inevitable
finale, one cannot help but remember Cayhall's earliest words
to the young, attractive and inept advocate, "You don't look
like you could save a turkey from Thanksgiving."
Screenwriter William Goldman, who has racked up an
admirable score in the past, surprises by the lack of
engrossing dialogue this time around, unless we should more
appropriately give this credit to co-writer Chris Reese or
novelist John Grisham. Perhaps the allure is more a question
of being enticed or enchanted by the novels of Grisham
himself, a treat which is spared some of us by a lack of interest
in this particular genre. The last remarkable courtroom drama
of this type that comes to memory was To Kill A Mockingbird
and it still surpasses the Grisham blockbusters artistically, no
matter how high the box office returns may climb.
Nevertheless, large audiences flock to this fare, and you might
find yourself among those who delight in this tale. (It will also
fill in any space in your schedule left vacant since O.J. and the
Menendez bros. have disappeared from your small screen.)
Now that we've had The Firm, The Client, and The Chamber,
one wonders what will follow. "The Afterlife" or, possibly,
"Final Judgment?"
© 1994-2006 The Green Hartnett
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