Movie Review: Reasonable Doubt (2014)

The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson, Dominic Cooper, Gloria Reuben, Erin Karpluk and Ryan Robbins.

I came across this movie on one of our movie channels this past weekend and ended up recording it because it looked interesting. I was able to finally finish the film earlier this morning and, while it was an OK movie, I honestly was also a little disappointed by it.

The premise of the movie is actually somewhat interesting. The prosecutor (Cooper) learns the man he hit with his car has died and another man (Jackson) was arrested for murder after police pulled him over while he was trying to transport the dying man to the hospital. And, rather than just coming forward and admitting what had happened, he decides, instead, to prosecute the case and ask questions that help the defense team.

The problem with this movie is, once Jackson’s character is acquitted, the film becomes surprisingly predictable. It’s not too hard to figure out the prosecutor made a major mistake; Jackson’s character really was a bad guy who deserved to be behind bars and, because he knows the truth, the prosecutor and his family is in danger. And, once that cat is out of the bag, the rest of the movie just continues to follow a predictable path that prevents it from being anywhere near as suspenseful as it should be.

To be fair, Jackson, himself, did an excellent job. I love watching him in movies like this because he has the ability to either be the villain or a good guy and, at least in many cases, it’s not always clear which. And, at least in this particular case, his character was definitely watchable and, when we learn the motive, it’s even somewhat easy to relate to him.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie really fails to capitalize on that and, because it is so predictable, his excellent performance just isn’t enough to save it.

As I said, this movie had a good premise. However, the very predictable plot does keep the movie from reaching its full potential and it’s somewhat forgettable as a result of that.

My Grade: C