Lawyers In The USA

A Murder of Crows (2001)

Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/18/2003

Writer-director Rowdy Herrington takes innocence, guilt, ambition, and morality, and twists them into a suspenseful, seductive spiral that can't help but suck you in. When defense attorney Russell Lawson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) realizes his client (Eric Stoltz) is guilty, he turns on him mid-trial--a move that costs him both the case and his career. Disbarred and disheartened, he retreats to Key West, where he meets a peculiar retired teacher named Christopher Marlowe and the film's roller coaster ride begins. In a quick reversal of fortune, Lawson makes an ethical compromise and becomes wildly successful--and then just as suddenly becomes a fugitive from the law, trying to track down a murderer before being tracked down himself. Gooding's constant voice-overs tend to distract from the story rather than add to it; however, his down-home earnestness makes him a good foil for a cranky cop (Tom Berenger) who appears to be more interested in making an arrest than in finding the truth. But then nothing here is what it first appears to be, and although Herrington leaves just enough clues for the astute viewer to pick up on the film's central metaphor, the conclusion still manages to surprise. With such a talented cast and tight writing, it's hard to fathom why A Murder of Crows didn't do better in theaters. At least on video the film, like Lawson, is given a second chance. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-03-28
Summary: "a murder of crows"

DVD was delivered quickly, new and in original wrap. Unable to find it anywhere else.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-03-16
Summary: "A Murder of Crows"

I loved this movie from the first time I saw it. This copy is in GREAT shape and I'm VERY happy to have found it to add to my collection.

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Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2010-03-02
Summary: "Dead Birds"

It is an unfortunate fact that many mystery writers, of both novels and screenplays, are often far better at concocting a great set-up, the perfect crime as it were, than they are at resolving the story in any realistic or believable way. This movie is another similarly unfortunate example.

If all one read was the synopsis -a man is given a manuscript for which he falsely takes credit, but which details crimes for which he is subsequently charged after he has destroyed all evidence to the contrary- it sounds good. A classic locked room mystery. The problems here are both the telling of the larger story and the resolution. The beginning of the story is muddied with both unnecessary characters and exposition, for little of it actually matters once the trap is sprung on Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character...and that only happens after he is taken in by a series of characters wearing disguises so bad that they'd not pass muster in a high school play. Unbelievably escaping the police in both New Orleans and Key West after he is charged with the crimes detailed in the book, Gooding (who never changes his clothes throughout the latter half of the movie, but never looks a bit rumpled either) slowly pieces the truth together. Unlike "Fracture," a great Anthony Hopkins movie that wove a similar impossible situation tale, this movie is all set-up and no delivery, for while the actual killer's motive for one of the aforementioned murders is made clear, absolutely nothing else is.

We can only guess at the killer's connection to the other victims, his connection to Gooding's character, and have no idea how or why hot-on-the-trail detective Tom Berringer arrives at just the right moment to save Gooding from becoming the killer's next victim. Like the soon-to-be-dead teenager in the slasher movies who goes to the basement when the entire audience knows she shouldn't, Gooding meanwhile does everything possible to further incriminate himself at the pivotal end sequence. I mean, hasn't the man ever heard of fingerprints????

In the film's final minutes, Gooding is charged with we-never-learn-what, and is acquitted -in the face of an incredible amount of evidence- we never learn how. And then the movie ends.

Thematically, the movie is all over the block, first giving the audience 10,000 reasons to hate lawyers, and then having redemption and deliverance come only at the hands (and only be possible through) an attorney. So what is the audience supposed to come away thinking?

Throughout this film, its low budget is telegraphed in a thousand different ways. Berringer's character is only believable by TV Cop standards, and the rest of the characters are unnecessary, unbelievable, or 2-dimensional. These flaws, coupled with the gaping holes in the story, make this a failure in spite of Gooding's best efforts. Not really worth the time it takes to watch it because it is, in the end, a muddled mess and quite dissatisfying.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-01-09
Summary: "A Murder of Crows"

I really like Cuba Gooding, Jr. and he is awesome in this film. He's a lawyer that knows his client is guilty. He tries to get himself removed from the case, but is told he will be Disbarred, which he does. He moves to Florida and takes tourists fishing while trying to write a novel. An old man hires him to take him out and they become friends. The old man has a manuscript that he wants the lawyer to read, but dies before it can be returned. He has no family and the lawyer decides to get the book published as his own work.

The problem is that the murders in his "Fiction" book really took place and the only one who could have known all the details of the murders is the murderer. The lawyer needs to figure out who the author of the book is and clear his name before he ends up on Death Row.

Very good movie! I never get tired of this one.

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Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2009-11-21
Summary: "A complete and utter waste for all involved"

It seems like a decent plot: a disenchanted and disbarred lawyer named Lawson (Cuba Gooding) is on vacation when he meets an old man that claims to have a novel. Trying to work on his own novel but not finding the creative juice, Lawson takes the manuscript of the novel when the old man seems to have died and gets it published. The novel's plot details the murder of several defense lawyers who helped guilty parties get out free. It turns out to be a big hit, leading Lawson to the top...until a police detective (Tom Berenger) realizes that the story matches a real life case. Now wanted as a suspect, and believing the old man to still be alive, Lawson is on a mission to prove his innocence.

Of course, midway through we have several problems with the movie. For one, the film noir shtick doesn't seem to work: Cuba Gooding is a good actor, but it doesn't seem right for him. Every time he broke out into the flowery metaphors intended for a Sam Spade-ish character, I found myself laughing at the film. What's more, the suspension of disbelief is weak: it's hard to believe that the publishing group wouldn't have realized that the story matched the real life case very closely, and it's hard to believe that Lawson, a high ranking lawyer, wouldn't have known about the case enough to recognize there were similarities between it and the novel. It's also fairly obvious that the old man is a fake...I realize that it would have been nigh impossible to make it look 100% perfect and that it is otherwise a decent make-up job, but the audience can pretty much tell that Lawson is getting duped, which begs to question why Lawson doesn't smell something fishy about the whole matter sooner.

Even more hilarious is Lawson's escapade across America. The police are looking for him and he's wanted across the country, yet he manages to walk in and out of a police precinct with no trouble. Know how he does this? By holding a newspaper over his face!! No, I am not kidding. Then when he's walking about New Orleans (making no effort to disguise himself) he does the same thing, along with hiding behind trees. Maybe that's why we haven't found Osama bin Laden - we just need to look for the guy covering himself with a newspaper. Again, you'll find yourself laughing at the movie once too often.

The actors here are all wasted. Cuba Gooding, Jr proves just how cursed he is, being a capable actor who gets stuck in films like this as well as "Boat Trip" and "Snow Dogs." Tom Berenger tries his darndest to make use of the role, but never reaches his full potential, and when his character comes in at the end no discernible or rational reason is presented other than the script says he's supposed to come in. The absolute most depressing waste is Ashley Laurence as the sleazy publisher - it was truly heartbreaking seeing an underrated and beautiful actress used for nothing more than to give the film an R-rating.

Overall, it's a goofy movie that tries to be serious but turns into an unintended comedy. I watched it with my family, and we were all pretty disappointed by the end. I wouldn't suggest even giving it a one time viewing. Well, unless you intended to watch a goofy suspense-thriller-wannabe...thing...