From 2009, The Confession is based on a novel by Sol Yurick.
Am ambitious attorney, Roy Bleakie, who has a chance at being the next D.A., is asked to represent the employee of a wealthy friend who has just been arrested for murdering three hospital employees.
The man, Harry Fertig (Ben Kingsley) and his wife Sarah (Amy Irving) rushed their extremely ill son to the emergency room of a hospital one night, only to be brushed off by nurses and doctors and being told to "wait your turn" at that busy time. As a result, their little boy dies.
Grief-stricken, Harry goes out and shoots them.
In all honesty, having dealt with this sort of thing when my mother was ill, I really can't blame him, and if my sister owned a gun, the same thing might have happened. I frankly don't even think that scene was exaggerated.
Being a good lawyer, Roy wants to plead not guilty by reason of mental defect. Harry, a devout Jew, knows he has sinned, and wants to honor his son by taking responsibility for what he did. He demands to plead guilty, which is against the wishes of his employer.
Roy begins to suggest that the employer's insistence on mental defect has to do with something else, as Fertig was his top financial person.
Very slow-moving, in my opinion, with a lot of talk, though the acting was excellent. Someone wrote that "Ben Kingsley is a god." Well, Ben Kingsley is a god, a very powerful actor, and Amy Irving is a goddess, always giving a beautiful performance. Here she plays a woman who has now lost her son and husband, and she's frightened, vulnerable, and confused. It's probably the most complex part in the film, and she's more than up to it.
Alec Baldwin for me is much better in comedy. As a dramatic leading man, he is solid, but he relies on those movie techniques like the blank stare. When Al Pacino does it, it's scary. When Alec Baldwin does it, it doesn't register as much. He's also quite soft-spoken (I'm hard of hearing and actually was relying on the Spanish subtitles, which is all they had).
I don't mind talky movies if the dialogue is scintillating as in All About Eve. This wasn't.
It's still good as it raises some interesting issues and moral questions.
Am ambitious attorney, Roy Bleakie, who has a chance at being the next D.A., is asked to represent the employee of a wealthy friend who has just been arrested for murdering three hospital employees.
The man, Harry Fertig (Ben Kingsley) and his wife Sarah (Amy Irving) rushed their extremely ill son to the emergency room of a hospital one night, only to be brushed off by nurses and doctors and being told to "wait your turn" at that busy time. As a result, their little boy dies.
Grief-stricken, Harry goes out and shoots them.
In all honesty, having dealt with this sort of thing when my mother was ill, I really can't blame him, and if my sister owned a gun, the same thing might have happened. I frankly don't even think that scene was exaggerated.
Being a good lawyer, Roy wants to plead not guilty by reason of mental defect. Harry, a devout Jew, knows he has sinned, and wants to honor his son by taking responsibility for what he did. He demands to plead guilty, which is against the wishes of his employer.
Roy begins to suggest that the employer's insistence on mental defect has to do with something else, as Fertig was his top financial person.
Very slow-moving, in my opinion, with a lot of talk, though the acting was excellent. Someone wrote that "Ben Kingsley is a god." Well, Ben Kingsley is a god, a very powerful actor, and Amy Irving is a goddess, always giving a beautiful performance. Here she plays a woman who has now lost her son and husband, and she's frightened, vulnerable, and confused. It's probably the most complex part in the film, and she's more than up to it.
Alec Baldwin for me is much better in comedy. As a dramatic leading man, he is solid, but he relies on those movie techniques like the blank stare. When Al Pacino does it, it's scary. When Alec Baldwin does it, it doesn't register as much. He's also quite soft-spoken (I'm hard of hearing and actually was relying on the Spanish subtitles, which is all they had).
I don't mind talky movies if the dialogue is scintillating as in All About Eve. This wasn't.
It's still good as it raises some interesting issues and moral questions.