A Civil Action: Critic Reviews

A slick, shameless job that takes way too long to make its point (namely, we need the EPA).

I'm all for films that don't flow from the usual Hollywood test tubes, but A Civil Action is basically the standard formula with a dash of downbeat.

Like John Grisham for grownups.

Based on a true story, this is an intelligent legal thriller, very much in the mode of 1970s issue-oriented films, that may be too subtle and complex for the damands of today's market.

Millions of people read Harr's gripping bestseller, but Steven Zaillian may be the only one who didn't understand it.

Zaillian managed to surprise me by crafting a courtroom drama which is sufficiently different and thought-provoking that I can recommend it with a clear conscience.

As proficient a job as writer-director Steve Zaillian and his team do, A Civil Action has unmistakably unraveled by its close.

This is a case in which the material really is better served in book form.

The movie becomes one more David-and-Goliath morality play.

Delivering the verdict two thirds into the movie is anti-climactic, while Schlichtmann's belated atonement feels beside the point.

While Travolta is passable as Schlichtmann, it is the outstanding work from Duvall, Macy and briefly Tony Shalhoub that drive the story.

I expected a harder hitting indictment against the uncaring power of corporate America. Instead, we get a middlin' courtroom drama that lacks the intensity of such films as the 1982 Sidney Lumet/Paul Newman film, The Verdict.

the film is slightly overlong and the ending is anti-cathartic.

... hints at the complex moral issues that vein the story.

A legal drama that doesn't follow the usual Hollywood-John Grisham formula.

neatly avoids slipping into melodrama, and despite plenty of niggling minor faults along the way the movie finally succeeds. With a more comfortably cast lead actor it could have been even more powerful.

The film is so daring because it features a protagonist that we cannot and do not sympathize with.

My only real problem is with the script.

More complex, subtle, perplexing and memorable than the usual courtroom theatrics.

It's not bad, but with everything else out there, I won't recommend it.

Just when it seemed the courtroom drama was suffering a fatal case of John Grisham, A Civil Action" rescues the genre.

Though the plot plays largely by the numbers, Zaillian treats the material with a welcome level of maturity that manages to sustain interest even when the storyline doesn't.

This David versus Goliath courtroom drama has just the right mixture of legal debate and emotional vibrancy.

Well, I know a movie is not worth seeing if I can't work up the energy to write about it for two weeks.

A fine script from director Steven Zaillian gives all involved plenty to chew.