**SPOILERS**
A serial killer who avenges aborted fetuses by strangling their mothers; a lawyer who agrees to defend a man he knows is guilty to ensure he is convicted. Both of these would make solid premises for a thriller and a legal drama respectively. But combining them, as is done here, proves much less successful. The resulting film is neither suspenseful enough as a thriller, nor well-plotted enough as a legal drama. Neither strand of the story gets the attention it deserves, making it necessary for a legal luminary to reappear in the last quarter to explain, from his deathbed, what we can presume is the point: vigilantism is not the answer; the law may be an imperfect reflection of justice, but it's a close as we can get. Thematically, this is a well-intentioned film. But it's undermined by a disjointed (or perhaps over-edited) script, and some violently hammy acting, especially from the usually excellent Oldman. Martin Campbell's strong visual flair and Jerry Goldsmith's ominous music though blatantly stolen from Peter Gabriel's song 'Rhythm of the Heat' compensate, but nowhere near enough.
A serial killer who avenges aborted fetuses by strangling their mothers; a lawyer who agrees to defend a man he knows is guilty to ensure he is convicted. Both of these would make solid premises for a thriller and a legal drama respectively. But combining them, as is done here, proves much less successful. The resulting film is neither suspenseful enough as a thriller, nor well-plotted enough as a legal drama. Neither strand of the story gets the attention it deserves, making it necessary for a legal luminary to reappear in the last quarter to explain, from his deathbed, what we can presume is the point: vigilantism is not the answer; the law may be an imperfect reflection of justice, but it's a close as we can get. Thematically, this is a well-intentioned film. But it's undermined by a disjointed (or perhaps over-edited) script, and some violently hammy acting, especially from the usually excellent Oldman. Martin Campbell's strong visual flair and Jerry Goldsmith's ominous music though blatantly stolen from Peter Gabriel's song 'Rhythm of the Heat' compensate, but nowhere near enough.