Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child.
Just Cause is a competent mid-90s legal thriller that coasts on a solid cast including Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne. The plot has some genuinely effective twists that elevate it above the generic, though it eventually descends into slasher-thriller territory in its third act, undermining its more grounded legal drama setup. Acting is respectable but not remarkable, with Connery doing reliable work without stretching. Cinematography is functional but unremarkable — swampy Florida atmosphere is underutilized. The film is fairly derivative of the wave of John Grisham-style legal thrillers popular at the time, offering little distinctive voice or conception. The ending shifts genre in a way that feels jarring rather than clever, partially redeeming itself with some suspense but ultimately feeling like a compromise.