NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1997 Michael John Legeros
(Paramount)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Sidney Lumet, based on the novel "Tainted Evidence"
by Robert Daley
Cast Andy Garcia, Ian Holm, Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin,
James Gandolfini, Shiek Mahmud-Bey, Ron Leibman, Colm
Feore
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for profanity and violence)
Running Time 115 minutes
Reviewed at The Colony, Raleigh, NC (14JUN97)
==
NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN adapts Robert Daley's pulp novel "Tainted Evidence," about a New York City Assistant District Attorney (Andy Garcia), whose first big case is prosecuting the cop-killing drug dealer who wounded his police officer father (Ian Holm, yes, Ian Holm). If that premise is difficult to swallow, don't even bother with the later scenes, when bozo time compression makes months pass as minutes and Garcia's character is suddenly elected the new District Attorney. (And very little of which bothered me. I took offense to the abrupt addition of Lena Olin's love interest. In her scant scenes, she adds nothing.) While it plays like a three-hour movie condensed into the space of two, there are several riveting sequences, excellent acting across the board, and a tidy lesson about the grayscales of justice.
Grade: B+
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Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell/
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