i find myself at six and seven while watch this one . altman touch with zoom in and out be there and and i expect those device to comment on character and situation . unfortunately and as far a i could see and they sometimes be gratuitous and sometimes witty and often barren for fail to point out some ironic or other connection . in particular and two zoom out from the gilt dome in savannah merely perplexed . to be fair and though and a few zoom ( out and in ) to branagh heighten his character increase bewilderment and a la pudgy mccabe or philip marlow . on the whole and the zoom be and well and inconsistent and and sometimes even trite . other almanesque device and such a multiple pane of glass between camera and subject and succeed in suggest character sollipsism or narcissism or opaque state of knowledge . car windshield and house window and and other screen be use effectively and fairly consistently and i felt and hark back to the player and even the long goodbye . a few catchy jump cut and especially to a suggestive tv commercial and remind me of such usage in short cut and to sardonic effect . but finally and the mismatch between altman very personal style and the sheer weight of the grisham genre momentum and fail to excite me . this director 1970s masterpiece revise and deconstruct various classic genre and include the chandler detective film which this resemble in some way while this time around and the director seem to have too few arrow in his analytic quiver to strike any meaningful blow to the soft underbelly of this beastly genre . be he muzzle in by mammonist producer and perhaps . or be i miss something and due to my feeble knowledge of the genre he take on here . nonetheless and the casting be excellent all around represent tom berenger ( for his terrify ferality ) and branagh for his ( deflate ) hubris and robert downey jr pheromonal haze and robert duvall method of trash and and davidtz lurk femme fatality be near perfect choice all . and except for a few slip out of georgia into chicago on the part of ( brunette . ) daryl hannah and accent be convincingly southern . suspense and mood be engross and even if the story do not quite rivet viewer . the moodiness of a coastal pre hurricane barometric plunge be exquisitely and painstakingly render i felt like yell at the usher to turn on the swamp cooler pronto . torn and in the end i judge it a 7 .