The Trials of Cate McCall

Directed by Karen Moncrieff, The Trials of Cate McCall follows Kate Beckinsale’s title character as she attempts to overcome a series of personal and professional obstacles. Filmmaker Moncrieff, armed with her own screenplay, delivers an almost passable yet ultimately disappointing drama that remains less-than-engrossing from start to finish, which is a shame, certainly, given that the picture does boast a small handful of compelling sequences and several better-than-average performances – with Beckinsale’s solid work as the beleaguered protagonist matched by eclectic periphery players like Clancy Brown, Isaiah Washington, and Nick Nolte. (James Cromwell offers up a scene-stealing turn as a slick, slimy judge that remains a continuing highlight, to be sure.) The Trials of Cate McCall‘s arms-length atmosphere, though, is perpetuated by a narrative that just isn’t entirely interesting or attention-grabbing, with the case at the movie’s center especially tedious, and it doesn’t help, either, that Moncrieff has infused the proceedings with a bland, movie-of-the-week feel – which, when coupled with an often excessively deliberate pace, confirms the film’s place as a disappointing misfire that rarely, if ever, reaches the highs of Moncrieff’s previous efforts, 2002’s Blue Car and 2006’s The Dead Girl.

** out of ****