TRIAL AND ERROR
A film review by Walter Frith
Copyright 1997 Walter Frith
'TRIAL AND ERROR' OBJECTS TO BEING ORIGINAL
It's a struggle for a lot of television stars to make a transition to the big screen. Two of the most successful have to be Robin Williams and Tom Hanks. Other stars such as Tom Selleck, Shelley Long, David Caruso and Roseanne have had luke warm, little or no success at it. Michael Richards is certainly the funniest second banana on television today with his wacky portrayal as Kramer on the top rated television comedy 'Seinfeld'. He attempts to strut his stuff in the latest comedy from Jonathan Lynn ('Clue', 'My Cousin Vinny', 'Greedy') entitled 'Trial and Error'.
Jeff Daniels ('Dumb and Dumber', 'Gettysburg', 'Terms of Endearment') also stars as a high profile, conservative attorney who is sent by his firm's boss from Beverly Hills to Nevada to represent a member of the family (Rip Torn in a genuinely entertaining role) on trial for fraud. Daniels gets drunk at his bachelor party the night before and by nature of a hangover the next morning his out of work actor friend (Richards) substitutes for him in court and pretends to be the attorney of record for the trial. The problem now is that he has to keep on being the attorney of record and things get sticky here to say the least.
I don't understand why Hollywood feels it's necessary to keep telling the same story over and over again. While 'Trial and Error' isn't a complete disappointment because it does have some hilarious moments, it's a movie of switching identities and getting through the system very nervously which is something we've seen time and time again. There is also a needless romantic sub plot where Daniels has an affair with a beautiful waitress (Charlize Theron) and at the same time is engaged to be married back home in California.
Jeff Daniels plays the straight man quite well in this one and Richards does the best he can and you can tell at certain points where his comedy is improvisational and while 'Trial and Error' hasn't cleared the way for him to have a big career in the movies, Richards probably has a better shot than most from today's television at breaking out.
OUT OF 5> * * 1/2
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