A Civil Action Reviews

Back in 2000, when 'Erin Brockovich' came out, everybody was really enthousiast about it but I wasn't really convinced. 2 years before, this movie came out with a similar plot and, in my opinion, it is actually much better. First of all, there was an impressive cast (John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy, John Lithgow, James Gandolfini, Stephen Fry). I am well aware that John Travolta has sometimes a bad rep but he was just excellent whe he plays this kind of ambitious cynical fast-talking guys. Even better was Robert Duvall who gave honestly one of the best performances of his career (he even got an oscar nomination for his work). The movie started really strong with a very realistic and rather bleak view on the judicial system. Basically, Truth, Guilt and such concepts didn't really matter as long as you had a good strategy and I'm pretty sure it is how it works in the real life. Unfortunately, the movie lost its edge during in the second half and the whole thing got soft. Furthermore, Robert Duvall disappeared too soon and I think they spent too much time on the financial issues of the lawyers. Still, I really enjoyed it, it was way better than any John Grisham adaptation I have seen before and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Slick big city lawyer Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta) takes on an environmental case that leads him down the path of career suicide. This drama has an all to real feeling, but it wasn't a story that holds enough interest to warrant a good review.