Beyond a Reasonable Doubt *** (2009, Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Douglas) – Classic Movie Review 6,101

Jesse Metcalfe stars alongside Michael Douglas and Amber Tamblyn in the twisty 2009 American crime thriller film Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, writer/ director Peter Hyams’s remake of Fritz Lang’s 1956 film noir Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

Writer-director Peter Hyams’s 2009 American crime thriller mystery film Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is an entirely reasonable and enjoyable, if unremarkable, remake of Fritz Lang’s cultish vintage 1956 film noir Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

This time Jesse Metcalfe (John Tucker Must Die) stars as frustrated young TV investigative reporter C J Nicholas, who takes an awful risk when he sets out to expose the corrupt tactics of smarmy DA Mark Hunter (Michael Douglas) by implicating himself in the murder of a prostitute.

So the young journalist sets himself up as a murderer to expose the Louisiana star prosecutor, who has a record 17 trumped-up convictions, and enlists the help of his friendly co-worker Corey Finley (Joel David Moore).

Nicholas plots to frame himself for the prostitute’s murder, using circumstantial evidence. He and Finley obtain objects linking Nicholas to the murder, which Finley records on video with Nicholas holding a newspaper, showing the date to be after the murder. The disk is kept in Finley’s desk at home, with a back-up placed in Finley’s safe deposit box.

But Mark Hunter is on to Nicholas, who, once arrested and on trial, finds he cannot produce the evidence he had prepared to restore his innocence. When the plan goes wrong and Nicholas is found guilty of the murder and ends up being sent to Death Row, the only person left to help is his lover and Douglas’s young protégé assistant Ella Crystal (played by Amber Tamblyn).

The twisty, rather artificial story – a mix of murder mystery and courtroom thriller – is satisfactorily tweaked, updated to the computer and TV news era, and re-located to Louisiana. Back in 1956, Dana Andrews was playing the hero, a writer called Tom Garrett who sets himself up to take a murder rap to show the errors of circumstantial evidence. The casting in the Fritz Lang film is excellent.

This time round, however, there is a slight trouble with the casting. Maybe, arguably, Metcalfe is actually miscast. He is made for romcoms, not film noir. Certainly he is not absolutely ideal, but he is a charming, if lightweight presence as a decent, everyman hero you can easily like and identify with. And he has, just occasionally, got a steely glint in his eye.

Amber Tamblyn (the daughter of actor Russ Tamblyn) is fine, getting the job done briskly, as the feisty, resourceful heroine who starts by helping Metcalfe and ends up trying to save him, though Joel David Moore is perhaps a bit off key in a too-jokey turn as Metcalfe’s TV newsroom buddy Corey Finley, but nevertheless some sarcastic comedy is welcome. And it is a huge pity that Douglas – out-and-out the film’s classiest act – has not got enough to do as the stop-at-nothing slimy, over-ambitious district attorney (he wants to be state governor) in the smart suits. Of course it’s a role he could do in his sleep, but he is much needed here. Orlando Jones is a help as the smart police Detective Ben Nickerson.

So, overall, quibbles aside, all five main actors are welcome and effective.

Jesse Eden Metcalfe (born December 9, 1978).

The film is a bit of a curate’s egg. There are some excellent scenes and some weaker ones, there are some excellent character actor turns and some weaker ones, and there are some excellent lines of snappy dialogue and some weaker ones. A bit more honing on the writing and sharper cutting on the editing would help.

All in all, with Peter Hyams directing slickly, if anonymously, and photographing flashily, this movie is not great but not too bad at all. There is enough tension and surprise to keep it involving. It feels what it is, old fashioned and modern at the same time, with this kind murder mystery being out of date but Hyams doing all he can to keep it contemporary – there’s even a car chase!

Hyams’s screenplay is based on the 1956 story and screenplay by Douglas Morrow.

The film suffered distribution problems and numerous push-backs and was released in September 2009, taking only $3 million worldwide, way less than its $25 million budget.

It is Hyams’s second reimagining of an RKO studio film after 1990’s Narrow Margin.

Amber Rose Tamblyn (born May 14, 1983).

The cast

The cast are Jesse Metcalfe as C J Nicholas, Amber Tamblyn as Ella Crystal, Michael Douglas as Mark Hunter, Joel David Moore as Corey Finley, Orlando Jones as Detective Ben Nickerson, Lawrence P Beron as Lieutenant Alex Merchant, Sewell Whitney as Martin Weldon, David Jensen as Gary Spota, Sharon K. London as Judge Sheppard, Krystal Kofie as Taieesha, Grant James as Aaron Wakefield, Wallace Merck as Gilbert Romans, Robert Larriviere as Kevin Lynn Tarlow, and Randal Reeder as Survivalist.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,101

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com