This film starts off as a high-spirited comedy, with Judd Nelson giving an attractive performance as the ambitious young defence attorney who charms his way up the legal ladder. When a real challenge - the defence of an unpleasant English professor accused of sexual abuse and murder - presents itself, the film goes through a strange mood change, the quicksilver comedy giving way to the serious consideration of legal ethics: how far is a defence attorney prepared to go when he knows that his client is guilty? Sadly, this causes the story to lose pace. However, the performances are eminently watchable: Nelson is convincingly gutsy, Elizabeth Perkins is sympathetic as his girlfriend and John Hurt splendidly odious as the English professor.


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