I saw this on DVD; " Another breathtaking performance from the Oscar winning star of American Beauty . Kevin Spacey is Darrow " screamed the DVD cover . Turning the case over Kevin Spacey`s resume is the most prominent feature pointing out all he films he`s won awards for . Ironically for a true life film about truth and justice and law the DVD case doesn`t point out that DARROW is a TVM from 1991 when Kevin Spacey wasn`t a household name in his own household . Slightly naughty in my opinion to market this DVD as a sort of star vehicle for one of Hollywood`s biggest stars
But as TVMs go this is pretty good . The production values are good as we see horsedrawn carriages traveling through the streets of America a hundred years ago . But as you may expect DARROW does suffer from a few flaws . First of all there`s maybe too many court cases involved to do them all justice . For example the McNamara bombing case and its consequences seems to have enough time dedicated to it , but the Eugene Debs case would have benefitted from more screentime while the summing up of the infamous Leopold / Loeb case takes up more screen time than the case itself , while the scopes monkey trial " My father`s most famous case " isn`t shown onscreen and is relegated to a voice over . Secondly Spacey seems to be sleep walking through most of the film . He`s by no means a bad actor but I do find him slightly overrated and in DARROW I failed to find much indication of star quality . Best acting performance is by Chris Cooper ( Yes that one ) an actor who`s as underrated as Spacey is overrated .
All in all a good TVM . If you`re a Spacey fan you`ll certainly like DARROW. If you`re not a Spacey fan you`ll still find positive points . Just remember that it`s a TVM made before Spacey was famous and you won`t be disappointed
But as TVMs go this is pretty good . The production values are good as we see horsedrawn carriages traveling through the streets of America a hundred years ago . But as you may expect DARROW does suffer from a few flaws . First of all there`s maybe too many court cases involved to do them all justice . For example the McNamara bombing case and its consequences seems to have enough time dedicated to it , but the Eugene Debs case would have benefitted from more screentime while the summing up of the infamous Leopold / Loeb case takes up more screen time than the case itself , while the scopes monkey trial " My father`s most famous case " isn`t shown onscreen and is relegated to a voice over . Secondly Spacey seems to be sleep walking through most of the film . He`s by no means a bad actor but I do find him slightly overrated and in DARROW I failed to find much indication of star quality . Best acting performance is by Chris Cooper ( Yes that one ) an actor who`s as underrated as Spacey is overrated .
All in all a good TVM . If you`re a Spacey fan you`ll certainly like DARROW. If you`re not a Spacey fan you`ll still find positive points . Just remember that it`s a TVM made before Spacey was famous and you won`t be disappointed