Black Southerner Samuel L Jackson sees liberal white lawyer Matthew McConaughey as the right man to defend him on charges of gunning down the two rednecks who raped and almost killed his 10-year-old daughter. Jackson wants a white defender the same way as McConaughey wants a jury of caring fathers. But hotshot prosecutor Kevin Spacey sees to it that he doesn't get them. From here on, McConaughey, his family and associates come under increasing mental and physical pressure as he fights to keep Jackson out of the gas chamber. Sandra Bullock co-stars as the sharp legal student who declares herself McConaughey's researcher - and nearly has an affair with him while his wife Ashley Judd flees town just before her house is burned to the ground. Slow to start and overlong, but strongly cast, well performed and persuasively done.

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