Movie Review

Directed by David Jenks, starring: Ben Kingsley (Harry Fertig), Alec Baldwin (Roy Bleakie), Amy Irving (Sarah Fertig), Franchise Pictures, 114 minutes, 1999.

This is a complex moral tale with several plot twists and an ironic outcome. Several religious questions are explored around the central theme of the relationship between the law of God and human law in the court system.

Harry Fertig is a pious Jew the devoted father of Stevie his 5 year-old son. Sarah Fertig, wife and mother is devoted to Stevie but less strict in her moral rectitude. Following a birthday party for Stevie he gets sick in the night, runs a high fever and they rush him off to the hospital. At the Critical Care Department they are put off by the ward clerk, told to wait their turn "everybody's sick here" etc, etc. They can't get their family doctor on the phone. Your basic parents' nightmare. In frustration they bolt for another hospital and Stevie dies in the cab. A short while later Harry murders the ward clerk, nurse and emergency doctor. He then turns himself in because he wants to take responsibility for his crime.

Bleakie is an up and coming lawyer, the kind of guy who will do anything to get a client off. Several layers of moral questions are introduced from a child stealing a toy through dirty cops getting off to blackmail of the state prosecutor. Bleakie is approached by Harry's boss, a very rich and well connected business man to defend his employee. Seems simple enough; plead diminished capacity, Harry serves 5-8 years, Bleakie gets to be D.A., everybody's happy including Sarah who will have her husband back in a reasonable time.

The problem is Harry. He wants to plead guilty so that he can honour his son and take responsibility for his action. ("You can defend me in court-before God there is no defense") He wants to make amends to God. He needs expiation. Bleakie is troubled by this plea but he has been paid a lot of money to get Harry off and his political future depends on it. He sits in a bar with his friend, an investigator from his office and there follows a baptism scene that is worth the price of the rental. He asks Bleakie if he wants to go to heaven, to be baptized. After some discussion Bleakie says he does and is baptized with bourbon. After the deed is done (with touching solemnity; this is not a mockery) he tells Bleakie, "Oh, I forgot, there's one other thing. Now that you're baptized, you can also go to Hell!" This is a defining moment. It signals the end of innocence. Innocent lawyer? Well, before this Bleakie was content to move in the world of deals, pleading down, legal procedure and "a good lawyer is one who gets a client off". Now, he is faced with a client who is a good man, who is demonstrably not insane because he wants to take responsibility for his crime ( never mind that wanting to pay for his crime and go to jail is crazy!)

The plot twist is provided by his boss who wants to get Harry off by pleading insanity because this will ensure that Harry would be declared incompetent to testify against him in a possible future court case. In the end Harry is sentenced to jail, Bleakie loses his chance at the D.A.'s office, loses two great women and gains his soul. Fair deal?

Now that I've told you the plot, why see the movie? Well, the dialogue is excellent as people argue through the implications of moral action and responsibility, the place of God in morality and law, the relationship between religious conviction and the rule of law in society.

Harry's moral aphorism runs through the story like a litany. "It's not hard to do the right thing. The hard part is to know what the right thing is. Once you know the right thing, it's hard not to do it."