BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

ShangLuda Admirable film.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

dmarcus-57064 The acting and story line in this film were just awful! It didn't make any sense at all and had no relationship to a real trial. This is all about teaching you about God and faith (not in itself bad, but if you have to be tricked into watching a movie about faith and religion, you know its not going to be worth your time).You'll catch on quickly when the credits refer to the www.theRefuge.net at the end.Spend your time doing anything at all besides watching this movie!

chomastr I'm giving a review just to enlighten myself of the torture of having watched it. Contrary to the name and use of courthouse terms, the movie has nothing to do with a trial. I am not convinced if there even was a case in the first place. No context whatsoever. There is no weapon,no motive, no fingerprints nothing. There is/was no evidence for the conviction/non-conviction of the accused and yet the jury comes up with a verdict.There are a lot of unanswered questions in the movie and vice versa. Please do something else that would be productive with your time.

section-one I went into this movie without knowing much about it besides it being about a criminal case that involves capital punishment. My expectations weren't really that high, I just wanted to be entertained for an hour and a half, unfortunately this movie did not cut it. If you've watched any other movie or TV show involving criminal cases or jury trials you can pretty much predict everything that is going to happen within the first 10 minutes of the movie and the cornier you guess the better. This movie hit every cliché there is at least twice. I guess you might have to give the actors some credit for keeping a straight face while saying their lines. The actors are pretty much the only reason I gave this 4 stars, the story itself deserves a 1, since a 0 doesn't exist. I certainly can't recommend this movie to anyone. If you think about going to see it I recommend you rent yourself a copy of any John Grisham movie or watch Law and Order Trial by Jury.

jojoscatt7 I am always looking for good films to watch with my family. Last night, we sat down with our kids (13 and 15) and watched THE TRIAL.It was refreshing to see a movie that had a simple message and for once not have that message rammed down our throats. My grandmother died recently and some of the elements from the film really helped.I loved the cast. Matthew Modine has always been a favorite and this seemed like one of the few recent films he's done that really challenged him. Now... as a Southerner it was nice to see no real stereotypes and yet everything seemed natural. I think it helped that they let actors like Robert Forster just be himself instead of putting on a fake accent.All in all, we liked it and recommend it.