Review of True Believer (1989) by Shiela E — 29 Jul 2011

A defense attorney with a ludicrous pony tail defends a man accused of murder.

I'm surprised by the critics' positive reviews of this thoroughly unexceptional film. Most of the reviews focus on Woods's performance, but whereas his other characters' extravagant posturing seemed to fit the situation and persona, here, he simply seems unreasonable and unstable. He irrationally yells at his cohorts, spouting treatises about justice for society's less fortunate, and everything he says is right and justified, but the manner with which he says it reminds me of those pundits on television "news" who do nothing but scream at each other. His character is supposed to be a remnant from the 60s, as indicated by the pony tail wig and the pot, but there's no real exploration of his past and how that past shaped his present. And amid all the histrionics is Robert Downey Jr. who has never been more unnoticable.

As a film, this is a wholly predictable procedural with fewer surprises than the worst episode of Law and Order. The clues are all obviously placed, and the final courtroom scene is so theatrical that it defies all believability.

Overall, after I read positive reviews of a film I didn't like, I normally reconsider my star rating, but True Believer was too poorly constructed and too pedestrian as a whole.