Class ActionHackman plays a worthy civil lawyer, a man who has dedicated his career to championing the underdog. He takes up a case involving the safety deficiencies of an auto company, only to find that he is squaring up to his estranged daughter (Mastrantonio), a hard-nosed defence lawyer who embodies some values he truly despises. Apted's film is contrived and predictable, but courtroom dramas are rarely anything else. Hackman is the one thing that keeps you watching. His performance, playing a man of dignity and honour with a veneer of vanity, is the only evidence of class on show here.
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