Review: Trial By Fire

by Chris Feil

The first sign of Trial By Fire’s problems is that its title is a pun, and I welcome any and all puns. It's perhaps not the most sensitive way to approach a film that begins with a house fire that takes the lives of multiple children. Maybe don't do that.

But then again, sensitivity isn’t the film’s strong suit. As directed by Edward Zwick (yes that Edward Zwick, primarily known for epics your dad might love like Glory and The Last Samurai), the film is a not-quite-thoughtful look at a true story of Death Row Texas. Jack O’Connell stars as Cameron Todd Willingham, a man convicted of a home arson that took the lives of his three children despite his claims of innocence. His case is doomed by prejudice and a corrupt system until he meets the correspondence of Laura Dern’s good samaritan Elizabeth Gilbert.

The film struggles to balance both Gilbert and Willingham’s perspectives, with Geoffrey Fletcher’s script (based on David Grann’s New Yorker article of the same title) unsure of how to share its focus between them. Its first act details the trial and first year of Willingham’s imprisonment, and it comes off rather tasteless in its arch redneck portrayals of Willingham and his wife Stacy (Emily Meade). The overpunctuated twang of these surroundings just make the procedural cliches of this section ring all the more loudly. The way it paints him reads like the film accidentally buys into the biases that the system has used against him, with not even O’Connell able to do much humanizing beyond the demands of plot mechanics.

But to the white poverty porn smudged with lifeless caricature, Trial By Fire meets its other protagonist with stark blandness. Dern’s arrival elevates the film to pure watchability, her steadfastly honest delivery like an oasis against the film’s otherwise forced notes throughout. After quickly establishing her as a do-gooder, there isn’t much shading beyond that. Elizabeth feels passive to even her own family story, even if Dern makes it very easy for us to stay engaged.

As Zwick similarly stumbled to achieve with his sex romp-edy Love and Other Drugs, the film tries to have its cake and eat it too by pulling itself in too many directions that it struggles to tie cohesively together. It wants to be both holistic Law and Order and righteous treatise against the death penalty. All of this is admirable but never as convincing as it should be, preachy without making its story be a vital one to the cause it’s representing. The systemic issues at work against Willingham are composed facelessly and vaguely, rendering The System into a monolith that it doesn’t seem to understand all that much. When it aims for the more specific target of Texas politicians as the credits roll, everything before it makes it miss the mark.

Ultimately, Trial By Fire is fatally disjointed is all of its pieces and lacking the humanity to make this an investing story worthy of its subject. It can only tread familiar ground and chooses to tread lightly - think Dead Man Walking by way of a significantly less demonstrative Erin Brockovich but on CBS Friday nights. Its also safely the weakest of the “imprisoned Jack O’Connell” subgenre.

Grade: C-

Comments

[درب ضد سرقت]

this film not bad

[قفل هوشمند]

One of the best films I've ever seen.

[درب ضد سرقت]

it is great!!!!!!!!!!!

[قفل هوشمند]

قفل باشگاهی

[حمل بار به ترکیه]

thank you for this site

[طراحی و نصب کابینت آشپزخانه]

طراحی و نصب کابینت آشپزخانه

[درب ضد سرقت اتحاد]

تولید و فروش انواع درب ضد سرقت ارزان

[گچبری دستی مجتبی پارسایی]

ارائه انواع خدمات گچبری سنتی و دستی با ضمانت

[شرکت طراحی سایت آژانس مسافرتی]

thank you for this site
طراحی سایت آموزشگاهی</>

[صنایع برودتی یونیک]

صنایع برودتی و یخچال صنعتی

شیر سرد کن

awsome movie

[دستگاه استرچ پالت]

ماشین آلات صنعتی

دستگاه استرچ پالت

good thanks

[خدری]

دستگاه شیرینگ پک تمام اتومات

i enjoyed watch

[ماشین آلات صنعتی خدری]

دستگاه لیبل شیرینگ

perfect movie

[دستگاه لیبل زن]

دستگاه لیبل زن

wow amazing

[اسپلیت مرکزی]

تصفیه هوا
به طور کلی سیستم اسپلیت مرکزی که با علائم اختصاری مانند VRV,MULTIV,VRF یا GHP مشخص می شود دارای یک کندانسور بیرونی ( که معمولا در بام ساختمان نصب می شوند) و تعدادی پنل اسپلیت داخلی با امکان انتخاب نوع پنل اسپلیت و امکان تنظیم دمای دلخواه در هر یک از فضاهای ساختمان می باشند.

[دستگاه لیبل زن]

درمان زخم سوختگی در منزل

باربری به استانبول ترکیه

خدمات گچبری

This article and this movie are really great

[دوربین لامپی]

پارتیشن اداری آنیل چوب

this movie is best.everyone should watch

[گچبری هنر برتر]

This movie is one of the best Hollywood movies really

گچبری کلاسیک هنر برتر

[شیرینگ پک خدری]

wow i enjoy to watch tis movie

پارتیشن ام دی اف آنیل چوب

[anilchoob]

I don't think it's a good movie at all

رزین چوب شرکت آنیل چوب

[نقاشی هنری ساختمان]

The movie was really beautiful
Thanks for the introduction

نقاشی هنری گچبری هنر برتر

[ماشین سازی خدری]

holly shet , very enjoy

خرید پرکن اسپری خدری

[آنیل چوب]

The film was exciting and unpredictable and I enjoyed it

کابینت هایگلاس آنیل چوب

کابینت ممبران آنیل چوب

[آریا لاک]

i watch this movie every month and enjoy

قفل هوشمند آریا لاک

[پرکن مایعات خدری]

i didnt watch it.its good?

فریزر خوابیده صندوقی اورانوس

[seoupdate]

yash very good
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[seoupdate]

yash very good
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[seoupdate]

wow awsome i enjoyed

وانت بار پونک ظریف بار وانت

[seoupdate]

i watched it more than 2
وانت بار تلفنی مرزداران ظریف بار وانت

[seoupdate]

very short and helpfull
قاب بندی دیوار پذیرایی و اتاق ها با مجموعه هنر برتر

[seoupdate]

ارائه خدمات وانت بار صادقیه با ظریف بار وانت

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[seoupdate]

holly shet nice

خدمات وانت بار در چیتگر تهران

[bahar toloyi]

https://samsunglock.support/product-category/digital-door-lock/