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Dark lofts, swinging doors, empty parking lots and so on are all nicely handled, but they’re also familiar to an audience that always seems to be ahead of the pic’s characters.īedelia gives a charming, dominating performance, but the woman she plays is too intelligent and too bright to behave in such a senseless manner. Though a first-time helmer, Bindley gives his picture a smooth and polished look, displaying some mastery over the genre’s tricks - and visual cliches. The courtroom format relies heavily on finely tuned dialogue and unanticipated revelations, but Bindley’s writing, specifically in the court sequences, is borderline banal and the disclosures aren’t particularly suspenseful. Realizing she’s been set up, Gwen begins a desperate race against time to prove her innocence. Soon, what seemed “circumstantial” evidence turns out to be a well-planned murder, with Gwen as the prime suspect. When Gwen’s roguish colleague, Charles Matron (Dabney Coleman), “a chronic flirt,” is found dead in his office, she’s asked to preside over the case.
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