TRUE BELIEVER
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1989 Jeff Meyer
For the last ten year's James Woods' character in TRUE BELIEVER has been on the emotional skids. He's one of the most famous 1960s lawyers, who made a name for himself defending "the little people" against companies and governments. But over the years, fewer and fewer of the people he defended were innocent, so that when a young lawyer (played by Robert Downey Jr.) who has come to New York with the intention of making Woods' his mentor, he finds a jaded, disillusioned man with much of the skill but little of the idealism of his glory days, making a living defending drug dealers.
Two things happen which begin to wake Woods out of his stupor; one is Downey's character, who is becoming a something of a Jimminy Cricket conscience to him, while the other is the case of a convict (played by Yuji Okumoto) who says he was sentenced for a murder he never committed. Woods is initially cynical, but begins to see parallels between his client's eight years of imprisonment and his own decline. But is his client telling the truth? There are some rather inexplicable mysteries about the gang shooting that sent Okumoto's character to prison, and (ironically for Woods, who has been using "conspiracy" as a plea for his clients for years) an organized resistance to releasing his client from prison, centering on the Manhattan District Attorney's decision to prosecute the reopening of the case (the D.A. is played by Kurtwood Smith, one of the more popular heavies these days, so you *know* he's up to something).
What the film boils down to is an old-fashioned mystery that is suspenseful and has its share of good twists along the way. All of this is spiced with Woods' growing surety that he is defending an innocent man, and fighting a good fight; his excitement in uncovering the mysteries surrounding the case are contagious. The script is excellent, and keeps things moving at all times; Woods and Downey make a good team, assisted by an upscale P.I. [private investigator] (played by Margaret Colin, who is getting typecast in this role) who knew Woods in his radical days. I will admit that there is a certain amount of Hollywood Courtroom Hokiness, but it's not at objectionable levels. And Woods, one of the best character actors around, keeps the high energy that has become his trademark under control, unleashing it in the courtroom finale where it really sparks.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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