Review of A Civil Action (1998) by Terry W — 30 May 2011

Steven Zaillian's adaptation of Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action is one of the best court room dramas filmed in Hollywood. This means it does away with all the cliche ridden scenes and dialogues that you see in most John Grisham adaptations Hollywood churns out year after year. Courtroom drama is a robust dramatic formula; there is human conflict, suspense and, in the verdict, resolution. This film prefers to emphasise and explore those non exciting parts in between the human conflict and suspense, in between the suspense and the verdict and in between the verdict and the resolution. As a result of that, the film was considered 'slow' and 'dull' by the mainstream brain dead used to explosions, car chases, quick cuts, power punched dialogues and so on and so forth. However, for the serious movie goer, this is where the charm of A Civil Action lies.

The man who deserves most credit for that is writer director Steven Zaillian himself. I have always believed that Zaillian is one of the best writers in Hollywood. He has written some of the most powerful and acclaimed films for directors like Scorsese and Spielberg.

So it is no surprise that in his second directorial feature, the strongest point of the film would be the gripping script. The film starts by introducing us to the main protagonist Jan Schlictman expertly played by John Travolta. Travolta perhaps delivers the performance of his career. Schlictman gives us snippets of his line of work, the American justice system and the nature of personal injury claims via voiceover dialogues.

However it is not just Travolta's performance that worthy of admiration in this film. The film boasts of actors like Robert Duvall and William Macy. Duvall is excellent as the sinister, experienced, veteran lawyer Jerome Fachor. Macy's performance as Jan's partner in his law firm was the standout one according to film critic Roger Ebert. But for me the standout moment of the film was the final scene where Travolta sums up his entire law career without saying a single word. A bravura scene and a bravura performance.