Amazon.com Essentials:
A top cast consisting of veteran aces Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway
can't rescue this way-too-long, dreadfully earnest version of John
Grisham's
equally gimpy novel. There are
several problems in this story of an
intertwined Southern family who must disentangle themselves from the past
and the dark shadow of a 1967 bombing. That terrorist attack led to the
deaths
of two Jewish children and was pinned on the black-sheep patriarch of
the
family, a racist, card-carrying Klansman named Sam Cayhall (Hackman), who
is
now serving time on death row for the hate crime. Years later, the savior
grandson cometh. Young-buck lawyer Adam Hall--played with righteous
determination and limited range by Chris
O'Donnell--pulls out all the stops to save his client from the Mississippi
gas
chamber. As is usual in Grisham country, the poor lawyer becomes embroiled
in
a plan more diabolical, corrupt, and layered than he could guess and the
truth
spirals out of control, endangering lives, and opening old wounds. The
Chamber attempts to twist and turn through its plodding story, but
there is no gray area in which to force the
viewer to weigh his or her conscience against the skewed facts. Everything
that occurs in The Chamber is black or white, good or bad, and there
is no
crisis of conflict to make us question the morality and stance of
the two sides in play. The bad guys are awful, the politicians are bought
off,
the cops are either corrupt or apathetic, and only one puny guy is left to
bring
down a house of cards that's been standing solidly for decades.
O'Donnell
is quickly put to shame by Hackman, who even manages to suffer
through a sadistically long, melodramatic stroll down death row with his
dignity intact. --Paula Nechak
Amazon.com Essentials:
Adapted from John
Grisham's novel, this does not live up to its potential; although
it does come close. A fresh-faced Chris O'Donnell is the naive but
insistent young attorney determined to appeal the case of Gene
Hackman. The latter plays a unapologetic death-row inmate accused of
killing two Jewish boys 30 years earlier. O'Donnell, we quickly learn,
is the grandson of the murderous old cuss and has his own agenda for
trying to save him. Meant more as a character study than a courtroom
thriller, this never quite gels, as it leaves a few too many questions
unanswered. However, it is well worth seeing for the performances,
especially Hackman as the grizzled and nasty elderly
convict. --Rochelle O'Gorman
