Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

After a run of disappointing efforts like The Musketeer and A Sound of Thunder, Peter Hyams bounces back with an entertainingly absurd thriller that boasts several genuinely exciting interludes and an expectedly riveting performance from Michael Douglas. The film follows struggling reporter C.J. Nicholas (Jesse Metcalfe) as he becomes convinced that the local district attorney (Douglas’ Michael Hunter) has been planting evidence to secure his convictions, which eventually leads C.J. to frame himself as a murder suspect to catch Hunter in the act. It’s an almost jaw-droppingly ludicrous premise that is, for the most part, employed to better-than-expected effect by Hyams, there’s little doubt that the movie does take a while to wholeheartedly get going – as Hyams offers up an underwhelming, thoroughly meandering opening half hour that’s exacerbated by the film’s palpably low-rent atmosphere (ie it’s rather obvious that Hyams didn’t have a tremendous amount of money to work with). The less-than-engrossing vibe persists right up until C.J. begins setting his plan into motion, after which point it becomes more and more difficult to resist the inherently compelling nature of the film’s unabashedly outrageous narrative (ie the viewer is essentially forced to abandon all logic and embrace the ridiculousness of Hyams’ screenplay). And although the movie does run out of steam towards the end as C.J.’s lawyer girlfriend (Amber Tamblyn’s Ella Crystal) launches her own investigation, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt generally comes off as an above average thriller that seems to have been unfairly dismissed by most critics.

*** out of ****