Too much of everything

To me, this movie is perfection.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Thanks to the recent legal decision against Toyota and memories of the ill-fated Ford Pinto, it's difficult not to think of "Class Action". Many reviewers like to think that court room dramas can always be better, but if you've ever witnessed real court proceedings then you'll discover they can be immensely boring and why film makers avoid it. What makes "Class Action" so refreshing is the context of the case, which is a bona fide problem considering numerous cars with dangerous design problems, the devious corporate view of profit over loss (including life), which gives the film an underplay of David vs. Goliath, the spicy exchanges in court, the conflict between father and daughter, which is essentially a clash of Right vs. Wrong, and of course first rate performances by the actors. There are a few predictable story lines, but that's to be expected. "Class Action" is altogether a very entertaining and insightful film.

Reviewing a movie 20 years following its release is a curious task, as it entails a reflection on its content not merely as film, but as a comment woven of how the movie compares against similar films, and also films of the era from which it originates. "Class Action" serves two masters - those of courtroom drama, and those of family drama. It serves neither especially well.Courtroom drama is often used as a metaphor for a broader morality play, weighing different varieties of good and evil, or merely right versus wrong. Done well, courtroom drama is capable of producing authentic conflict that forms the basis of outstanding films, such as "A Few Good Men" and "Presumed Innocent," where the core conflict reflected a measure of unease about the kind of justice the films offered, and asking the viewer to consider whether their results were right. "Class Action," however, aspires to no such heights, tossing up a legal softball in the form of a thinly-veiled fictionalization of the famed 1970's Ford "exploding Pinto" design. With the legal drama paper thin, the characters that tell the story rapidly become strawmen caricatures, and hollow becomes the family conflict between Gene Hackman's Jedediah Tucker Ward and his daughter Maggie, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Where Hackman's character is a clichéd 60's counterculture throwback, Mastrantonio's is the equally clichéd corporate attorney. The story allows for no subtleties, and the conflict is decided before the first frame is filmed.The film's middle third delves into too many tightly-shot, overwrought emotional introspections, and Mastrantonio looks at times exceedingly uncomfortable in the role of an attorney. One can't help but wonder if the cast overcompensates for what it knows is a contrived story, trying to manufacture interesting conflict where the film's end-game can, minus the details, reasonably be predicted. On its face, the drama between Mastrantonio and Hackman is marginally compelling, but so heavily directed by Michael Apted it makes one wish the characters hadn't been drawn in such a starkly one-dimensional manner so as to allow the viewer the chance to contemplate who holds the moral high ground in their personal life, and, more broadly, in their opposite-ends perspectives in the legal system. As it is, a few scenes of anger and rage, militated by the superfluous introduction of the death of Maggie's mother along the way, merely serve to insist the viewer agree with the film's predetermined conclusions. The result leaves the conflict empty, and the viewer only marginally interested.The courtroom conclusion provides for its own interesting trapdoor resolution, which won't be revealed here, and that alone does provide "Class Action" the kind of end-game pop it desperately needs. The "pop," however, isn't enough to overcome the hard characterizations that force the dramatic point, rather than allow it to form in the heart and mind of the viewer.

This subdued courtroom drama starts out like an extended episode of L.A. LAW but quickly reveals itself as the unheralded gem it is. Gene Hackman is as solid as ever as a fervent lawyer battling an auto giant accused of manufacturing a faulty model. The twist is that his rival attorney just happens to be his self-reliant daughter, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.CLASS ACTION is not a flashy, fill-up-the-screen-every-minute kind of film. But it is a quite compelling effort. The courtroom storyline is captivating, with director Michael Apted expertly showing the case and its various twists and turns from both sides. Anyone who was glued to the set anytime L.A. LAW came on be in heaven.Then there's the family dynamic. Hackman and Mastrantonio are convincing as the father and daughter. He seems to know everything and she wants to prove that he does not. They begin the film miles apart in their relationship and it seems a tense court case will further drive in the wedge between them. It's a plot line that works well and helps elevate the film.

Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio provide a perfect chemistry as a father and daughter, both of whom being attorneys in this excellent 1991 film.The plot is twofold. Not only are the two on opposite sides of a case involving a faulty automobile but they must cope with the death of the mother, a lovely lady who chose to remain with a wandering Hackman.Hackman argues the case for the defense. It is horrifying that a cover-up existed because it would be cheaper to deal with the lawsuits than to make the necessary improvements.A very engrossing film dealing with the human spirit, ethics and indifference. Highly recommended.