I remember being given the book on which this is based by a lawyer friend who gushed over how much he liked it; it was enjoyable and makes an enjoyable film, of most appeal for lawyers or ex-lawyers. It’s a career boy tale, with Matt Day as a rising lawyer in a massive firm who has a crisis of conscience – although that doesn’t stop him from two-timing his girlfriend with Lisa McCune.
Writer-director Peter Duncan has Day address the camera directly instead of using voice over; I’m not convinced it’s the best way to go but it doesn’t harm the film. The story feels better suited to a book than a movie (lots of internal monologues, various subplots as opposed to a big driving narrative, protagonist often passive), but Duncan finds interesting ways of opening up such as the “don’t call her” monologue by Day, a North by Northwest homage, and a neat “every legal team has a hot female lawyer for a mediation” montage.
The cast is very strong and all the lawyers actually seem like lawyers, which isn’t always the case with films: Day, Peter O’Brien, Tony Llewellyn-Jones (the way he squinted through his glasses was spot on), Tony Barry, Freya Stafford, Marta Dusseldorp, Tirel Mora, Simon Chilvers, Kris McQuade (I know a few public servant lawyers who looks like her). My particular favourite was Frank Whitten as the smarmy barrister Giles, peering over his glasses and demanding coffee – he was astonishingly accurate. The one that didn’t feel quite right was Lisa McCune as the journalist, a “she’ll save me” figure – I normally like McCune, she is perky and pretty, and her performance here was fine, she even flashes a boob… she just felt a bit miscast, that’s all.
This didn’t have the weight to be a feature but is a reminded of how good telemovies can be – if only we’d make more of them.
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