first thing first though i believe joel schumacher be at best a mediocre director and more often ( a here ) downright bad and the lion share of the blame for this ugly travesty of a film must go to john grisham whose novel this be base on . set at an undetermined point in time ( the 50 . the 70 . now . ) and the film open with the rape and murder of a child by redneck so caricature that their purpose seem to be to reassure racist that at least be not that bad cut to the bad guy arrive at the courthouse when the girl father and samuel l jackson and fearful they will get off on some technicality and gun them down in cold blood before the trial . the setting be a wouldeep south that probably never exist the few black character live in shack and seem to pick cotton and the dyed in the wool racist ( kiefer sutherland be a cartoon version of a klansman ) be laughable in their villainy . the set piece be the trial represent for the defence and be the good guy a milquetoast lawyer play by matthew mcconaughey a though in a coma and his assistant play by sandra bullock breast ( she doesn not seem to serve any other narrative purpose ) and donald sutherland a the requisite drunk lawyer who sober up to fight the good fight . for the prosecution and kevin spacey go through the motion of be demon spawn and while in the town at large and cross be burn and witness be intimidate and the local citizen do not seem to care some of the review here claim the film immoral and since surely samuel jackson be a killer and should trust to the force of the law rather than get off on a feeble heart tug piece of oratory by matthew mcconaughey . to be honest and objectionable though the underlying message vigilante justice be good might be and everything about the movie stink represent the characterization be pitiful and the act leaden and the direction plodding and the screenplay and the dialogue almost verge on parody . peter menzies lush and 50 technicolor cinematography be pretty but derivative . and it go on for nearly two and a half hour . what leave to say . this be a waste of 141 minute of anyone life and it be tedious and vacuous and hammy and and and almost a an afterthought and it be morally repugnant .