Movie review: The Trials of Cate McCall (NC16)
PUBLISHED ONJune 19, 2014 5:40 PMByYip Wai Yee
Review: Drama
93 minutes / Now showing / Rating: 2.5/5
This movie made headlines for all the wrong reasons when it was first released.
When it premiered in Hungary last November, it made a measly £700 (S$1,400), which led distributors to drop it from theatrical release in Britain and the United States altogether.
It bypassed even a DVD release and went straight to broadcast on American entertainment TV channel Lifetime.
In the lead role is British beauty Kate Beckinsale, who treats the project with utmost seriousness and delivers a nuanced performance. But it is squandered in the hands of writer-director Karen Moncrieff (The Dead Girl, 2006), who gets the pacing all wrong.
A disgraced lawyer who is returning to work after kicking her alcoholism, Beckinsale's titular character is assigned to handle an appeal for a convicted murderer (Anna Anissimova).
She discovers that there may be a complicated police conspiracy behind it all that involves a brutal gang rape.
With little suspense throughout, the story unfolds like an episode of a medicore TV courtroom drama.
This article was first published on June 18, 2014.
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