James Woods, one of Hollywood's finest but most underrated actors, turns in another passionate performance as degenerate lawyer Eddie Dodd. Perfectly cast, Woods' portrayal of Dodd, a former radical idealist lawyer who has become a directionless but effective defender of drug dealers, is from the top drawer. Robert Downey Jr, Oscar-nominated for his portrayal of Chaplin in Richard Attenborough's biopic, joins Woods as a trainee attorney and is shocked by the low-life clientele of his scruffy legal mentor. But together they make a convincing team as they set out to free a man who has been jailed for eight years on a frame-up. The film's stance, that the Sixties was a decade of decency whose ideals have been dashed on the rocks of Reagan-era reality, is underscored throughout with fragments of period rock classics. The only unconvincing thing about this tough movie is Woods' dreadful pony-tail.


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