I saw _A Civil Action_ last week. It was just an
above average movie. Travolta was adequate as the star, although
I didn't find his turn towards the angels very convincing. The
rest of the cast was similiarly uninteresting, including
disappointingly enough, William Macy, who I expect good things
from.
The one exception was Robert Duvall whose
performance is reason enough to see this movie. Duvall is one of
the bests at showing an interior intelligence and emotion in
roles where other actors would just emote. The scene where Duvall
questions the father of the boy who died in the car on the way to
the hospital is a great example of this. You can see Duvall is
stunned by what he hears, and his eyes give away that this
father's story will destroy his client's case, but he says
nothing. Later, after the meeting, he says to a colleage in the
hallway that he won't let that guy in front of a jury. I thought
that scene was completely unnecessary. Duvall had already shown
the movie-viewers what he was going to do.
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