Reasonable Doubt

source: Reasonable Doubt

But it's still pretty decent. Only if you overlook the major flaws of course (character decisions are purely executed on the "what's the worst decision I could make?" scale, always choosing exactly that one), which shouldn't be too difficult because of the actors in it. Yes the inciting incident is as stupid as it gets (especially considering the lawyer position). The movie tries to make up for that, by showing the past of our main character, which sort of is trying to make the decision relating to the viewer. Of course Samuel L. Jackson does not care, what the character is or if some would consider the script weak. His performance is top notch once again. Just him picking up a glass of water and sipping from it, is a delight to watch (especially considering the circumstances of that scene and how it came to be). While there is a lot of stuff going on, that you won't really like, the actors are the anchors here, reeling this one in, before it goes completely overboard ...

This film tells the story of a young district attorney in Boston whose life is turned upside down after knocking a man over on the street with his car. He faces moral dilemmas, strange circumstances and much danger. The plot is quick paced and suspenseful, and the tone of the film changes several times as the circumstances around Mitch changes. I quite like these twists and turns as it maintains the thrill and urgency throughout the film. His moral dilemma is also well depicted. Dominic Cooper does a good job in portraying the law enforcer who is in various difficult situations. I liked "Reasonable Doubt".

My wife and I tried to watch this but just could not sit through it. Shouldn't there at least be an attempt to make any part of a movie believable? We are always ready to suspend a little disbelief for artistic sake but some things are just too contrived to tolerate. This is one of those cases. The court scenes were the final straw. They got our hopes up with Samuel L. Jackson only to destroy those hopes by treating us, the audience, as if we were fools. The story idea might not have been bad, the acting may have even been good but you can't ignore terrible writing and simplistic dialogue. Please do not watch this movie.

Reasonable Doubt had the potential to be an absolutely riveting thriller. On paper the film has an intriguing narrative that juxtaposes the moral choices of two seemingly ordinary men. Dominic Cooper is Mitch Brockden, a prosecution attorney who makes the ill-fated decision one night to drive his car home after a session of heavy drinking. Distracted by the presence of police, Mitch hits a man crossing the road. Instead of helping the man Mitch tries to avoid accountability for the incident by fleeing the scene. Mitch selfishly attempts to justify that his actions served the best interests of his career and family. Not so differently is another supposedly innocent man named Clinton Davis (Samuel L. Jackson). Innocent by the fact that he is soon charged with the hit and run offense. Racked by the guilt of his crime, Mitch assigns himself to the case in order to sabotage the prosecution argument against Clinton. After the successful acquittal of Clinton, all balance seems restored until Mitch decides to delve a little bit deeper into Clinton's past history and his connection with the victim. In a chilling revelation, Mitch discovers that Clinton's family was murdered before his very eyes in a sadistic home invasion years earlier. Deranged by the event, Clinton seeks private justice against those criminals who he deems likely to re-offend. It seems that the victim of the hit and run was actually a convicted child molester who was escaping from the torturous clutches of Clinton. In a twist on conventional thrillers, we are presented with a moral quandary about whom the real villain is. Is Mitch's callous and deceptive actions to save himself from guilt any less villainous than Clinton's justification for murdering the most reviled criminals in the community? Unfortunately that is where my interest in the film ends. A promising narrative on paper doesn't always translate to an excellent execution on film. By the time the final half rolls by the film devolves into a cliché predictable mess, shifting from moral ambiguity to straight out schlock with plot holes galore. It is frustrating to see potential character development being squandered by inept writing. The concept of having two antiheroes as the main characters was what kept me watching. Samuel L. Jackson's role as Clinton was by far the best performance in the film even with such poor character development. His presence felt extremely menacing but unfortunately his character lacked a sympathetic angle which could have helped me relate to his anger and feel pity for his suffering. Dominic Cooper's performance was surprisingly one dimensional considering how dynamic of an actor he really is (watch the Devil's Double). It pains me to say this but he needs to fire his voice coach because his American accent was absolutely terrible. Year after year these generic thrillers keep getting made even though they offer nothing refreshing or new to the genre. While the film itself is merely mediocre, it still baffles me why writers and directors feel the need to wrap their films up in a nice neat package. It is not only disrespectful to the audience but it does an injustice to the subject theme. 2.5/5

Back in 1998, Peter Howitt scored a surprise hit with Sliding Doors. For viewers on the British side of the Atlantic, the reaction was pretty much, "What? Joey from Bread directed this?" It was a step up to the big time for Howitt with a rom-com that was reasonably inventive, stood up to repeated viewings and showed promise for a new director on the block. What happened? The sixteen years since has seen a steady decline culminating in the dull thud that is Reasonable Doubt. Credited here as Peter A. Croudins, perhaps Howitt changed his name in embarrassment. Good. It's warranted. Mitch Brockden (Dominic Cooper) is a district attorney who, after a night out with the boys, climbs into his SUV and mows down a pedestrian. Mitch panics, anonymously phones the ambulance and then runs. The cops pick up good Samaritan Clinton Davis (Samuel L. Jackson) who claims to have seen the victim and decided to rush him to the hospital in his van rather than wait for the ambulance. The trouble is Detective Blake Kanon (Gloria Rueben) and her team reckon the corpse's injuries could have been caused with a hammer, there were no witnesses, Davis has a history and Brockden isn't about to come clean. Reasonable Doubt is plinky plonk cinema. It is contrived from the outset and, bar the shift after the first twenty minutes or so when a new chapter opens up, it is predictable, badly thought out, obvious and completely unbelievable. Reuben is still playing Jeanie Boulet. She hasn't managed to shake off ER and adopt the persona of a detective with serious, violent crimes to investigate. Worse, Cooper is lost with an accent that has consumed his attentions rather than concentrating on acting. What happened to the actor who thrilled and terrified in The Devil's Double? He is flaccid and unconvincing and, though I suppose I should despise Mitch for his cowardliness and root for him when events turn, I just don't care. As for Jackson, can you say "just coasting"? There are duller, worse films than Reasonable Doubt, but I wouldn't recommend them either. It is supposed to thrill but is a thriller that is so protracted, so damn convenient and so heavily flawed (people arriving but no sound of a car, characters running to save lives rather than driving and increasing their chances of success…) that it bores. The conclusion is too tidy and the postscript ending is sickeningly twee and can't even be bothered to give consequences for the criminal acts of those left standing. Reasonable Doubt is twaddle that earns two stars simply because it caused me less pain that Noah. Murder has rarely been so unreasonably dull. For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.

I wanted to like this B-movie thriller, but I found the plot elements just got more and more ridiculous as the film progressed. Dominic Cooper stars as ambitious "hot-shot' Asst. District Attorney Mitch Brockden. He's leading a rather idyllic life with a beautiful wife (Erin Karpluk), a newborn baby daughter, and he's on the fast track to possibly become a District Attorney. However, one night after drinking with his colleagues, he decides to drive home while intoxicated and hits a pedestrian with his SUV. Panicking and worried about his career, he runs to a nearby pay phone and calls for an ambulance, but then drives off leaving the severely injured man in the road. The next day Mitch learns on the news that a man named Clinton Davis, portrayed by the great actor Samuel L. Jackson, has been arrested for killing the man that Mitch had left on the road. Apparently, the man was found dead inside Clinton's van, who claimed he was only trying to get him to the hospital. Mitch further finds out from the poker-faced and seemingly clueless Detective Blake Kanon (Gloria Reuben) that Clinton is suspected as a possible serial killer, and that his family had been murdered before his eyes sparking his rampage. Despite all this, Mitch is racked by a guilty conscience and wrangles his way into prosecuting Clifton for the alleged murder, then does everything he can in court to make sure he's not convicted. Once Clinton is freed though, Mitch becomes more and more convinced that he is indeed a serial killer, and takes it upon himself to prove it, using any means possible, legal or not. There are, I would say some elements here, that could have made this movie a decent thriller. However, the filmmakers seemed to take the path of complete predictability and shattered any chance of credibility with just increasingly unbelievable plot contrivances.

This movie could have been so much better. The plot was OK and i thought at first finally an interesting story.However this was actually a predictable movie with 0 chemistry between characters and at times even boring coz' i knew exactly how it was going to end.Samuel L.Jackson gave a good performance.On the other hand in my opinion Dominic Cooper was not a good choice for his role.Then there is this subplot with his stepbrother-which is actually totally irrelevant and brings nothing important to the story. The movie tries to be interesting but it lacks something. And yeah i hated soundtrack,which accompanied this film. It's OK movie to watch if there is nothing better on TV. I don't recommend it.

"You don't know my pain or my emptiness but now your gonna know what it means to be me." Mitch Brockden (Cooper) is an assistant DA who has everything going for him. While driving home one night he accidentally hits and kills a person. Rather then stick around and help he calls the cops anonymously and takes off. When Clinton Davis (Jackson) is charged with the crime Mitch does all he can to throw the trial so the innocent Davis can go free, but that is exactly what Davis wants. I was actually pretty excited about this because of the plot idea. It sounded interesting and I expected it to be tense and suspenseful. While the last 15-20 minutes felt a little that way the rest seemed pretty flat and not really tense at all. Samuel Jackson was only in it for a little bit and again played himself but at least he didn't scream all his lines in this one. Fans of Samuel L. Jackson may be a little disappointed because of his screen time and everyone else may be a little disappointed because its very flat and almost emotionless. Overall, a movie that I was disappointed in but only really because I think my expectations were a little high. I give it a C+.

Welcome to the world of Canadian Movies buddy. Great actors just going through the motions,bad editing,bad continuity,bad cinematography. At first this movie had a little tension but as time rolled on it started to become far fetched.The brother has a spot on voice match? Bull Shiv! The detective KNOWS it was the DA already? The DA breaks out of jail nice and cleanly? Now if a guy like Peter Hyams were directing this ,this movie would stand out. I agree with one poster that its not the "get in your face" SJ we love,too bad that part wasn't written in the script. I don't know whats worse Hollywood running out of ideas or wasting established actors or hiring pretty boys who cant act in the first place as their daddy owns the studio.