Criminal Law [1988]

Prefacing itself with the overused Nietzsche quotation about "the abyss also looks into you" [last seen in The Abyss], Criminal Law plumps itself squarely in the currently fashionable tradition, from Jagged Edge via Suspect and Physical Evidence through to Presumed Innocent, of convoluted melodramas about lawyers unethically involved in the inner workings of their clients' dubious murder cases. It dares to elaborate on its unbelievable central relationship between a driven yuppie lawyer and a charming old money psychopath with hokey devices more redolent of some '40s old dark house movie than of a supposedly "serious" modern thriller. Martin's killings, for instance, always coincide with driving rainstorms, which he links with his "cleaning, purifying" approach to mass murder, and which provide gothic settings for several overwrought sequences, especially Ben's discovery of Janet's body, which is played on a note of shrill hysterics, while one vital plot point depends on that most hackneyed of contrivances, the concealed secret passageway that blows open an alibi. Layered over these old-fashioned licks a few more recent horror conventions, with Elizabeth Sheppard, best known for Tomb of Ligeia, as an icy abortionist who owns the old dark house that consumes her in a Corman-style holocaust, and the final confrontations between Ellen and Ben and Martin staged in the thumping manner of an early '80s urban psycho movie like Don't Answer the Phone or He Knows You're Alone, with the hero and heroine scrabbling and blubbering as the cool, unstoppable nutcase comes for them with sharp implements.

Martin Campbell, returning to features after attracting attention with Edge of Darkness, draws clever and contrasting performances from Gary Oldman - who suffers somewhat because of the incredible lengths the script drives him to - and Kevin Bacon - whose smooth psychosis perhaps sidesteps dozens of plot unlikeliness surrounding his character's behaviour - but is stuck with a script by Mark Kasdan which is alternately cheapjack and pretentious. There is much debate about legal ethics, specifically the responsibilities of an attorney defending a client he knows to be guilty, but the plot acts out the issue in the most contrived and ill-thought-out manner imaginable, starting from the premise that Martin is charged with the first murder solely on eye-witness testimony and proceeding through the sub-plot that has Martin bringing evidence against him to the attention of the police solely to further embroil Ben in his private game. Finally, the film falls down in its finish, which upholds the universal cinematic law that even if a given movie explicitly upholds the rule of law against vigilante justice - as Ben rfefuses to kill Martin, trusting the courts to see justice done - the dynamics of the thriller require that the guilty party be spectacularly shot dead rather than dragged off for a protracted trial-sentencing-and-execution coda.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: Sight & Sound [issue unknown]

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