By Geno McGahee
I’m a big fan of Samuel L. Jackson. He has a great presence and can play any role and takes on any role that he gets with his best effort, even if the production doesn’t deserve it. SHAFT is a great example of a great cast met with a mediocre screenplay. in 2014, REASONABLE DOUBT was released and it sort of flew under the radar. I stumbled across it while browsing Netflix and the premise of a prosecutor being responsible for a hit and run and then prosecuting an innocent man for the same crime sounded interesting and the film proved to be an exiting an suspenseful ride.
Mitch (Dominic Cooper) is a prosecutor that cannot lose when he goes to court. He will leave the court room before the punishment is administered because he knows he’s won and won in great style. After a big celebration, he gets into his SUV, drunk, and drives home, and smashes into a guy. Initially, Mitch tries to help but realizes his position. He’s on his way to becoming something even bigger in the system and this drunk driving issue would forever hurt his chances. He runs to a pay phone and calls in the hit, disguising his voice as best as he can and then heads home with the dying man lying on the street.
The next day, Mitch is made aware of Clinton Davis (Samuel L. Jackson), and the charges against him. The police pulled him over with the body of the hit and run victim in the back of his van. Clinton states that he found the guy and was bringing him to the hospital. The police don’t believe him and arrest him for murder and tie him into a bunch of unsolved homicides. Mitch is assigned the case to prosecute him and it gets interesting.
For the first time, Mitch’s game is noticeably off, and he begins helping the defense to get Clinton released. Mitch’s step brother, Jimmy (Ryan Robbins), comes in and pretends to be a defense witness, and Clinton is released and everything is right with the world, but the story doesn’t end there.
With Clinton free, Mitch begins to re-examine that night and starts to think that there is more to this than meets the eye. (Spoilers) Mitch starts investigating all of the open cases that have similarities and starts connecting the dots. He may have let a serial killer go and now it becomes a battle for all the marbles between Davis and Mitch. Mitch has to risk everything he has to prove that Clinton is a serial killer and Clinton has the law on his side, making this a tough battle with many twists and turns.
The chaos that surrounds Mitch brings some clarity and the reunion with his step brother, Jimmy, but their teaming up leads to a short-lived friendship. Clinton kidnaps, tortures, and nearly kills Jimmy, leading to the arrest of Mitch and the final showdown where the lives of Mitch’s daughter and child hang in the balance.
REASONABLE DOUBT is a great film. Dominic Cooper is perfect in this role and the transition of his character is great to watch. Despite all these bad things happening around him, the fog starts to lift and he starts to see what really matters in life. Cooper understood this and played it amazingly. Samuel L. Jackson always sells the role and connected with Clinton Davis in a great way, playing the role in a believable and likable fashion. Davis’s family was killed and Clinton sees himself as an avenger and preventer of further tragedy. He’s a complicated villain or a confused hero.
Special credit to Ryan Robbins and Erin Karpluk, who played Mitch’s wife, for their great performances. They both were great additions to this story.
REASONABLE DOUBT is written by Peter A. Dowling, who also wrote another very smart movie in FLIGHTPLAN. He does a great job in constructing a suspenseful story with some twists and turns It was directed by Peter Howitt, who has done a lot of different roles in the film business, but is known for directing the 2001 film “ANTITRUST.”
I highly recommend this film. You can’t lose with Samuel L. Jackson, but you especially cannot lose when you have the supporting cast and team behind it.
Rating: 7.5/10
