A Time To Kill [Blu-Ray]

While heavy-handed and occasionally preachy, A Time to Kill proves to be one of the stronger Grisham film adaptations, pushing the right buttons and examining morality with complexity despite some politically correct conveniences that impede on potential profundity. This is truthfully inevitable, however, given that the film is about racial tensions in the American south, in addition to the horrors that can stem from fools with a cause. After two rednecks rape, beat and torture a ten-year-old black girl, her father Carl Lee (Samuel L. Jackson) takes it upon himself to murder them in a courthouse, inadvertently shooting a police officer (Chris Cooper) in the leg in the process. Having strong community ties, local bleeding heart lawyer Jake Tyler Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) defends Carl Lee despite running low on funds, and warnings from his less morally-driven friend (Oliver Platt). Given the racial implications of a murder trial involving both sides in Mississippi, both the NAACP and the KKK (Kiefer Sutherland) get their soapboxes out to preach their cause. Despite Schumacher's obvious direction, above average performances from Jackson, McConaughey, Bullock and Spacey keep the pic afloat, as does a story that inherently sparks reaction in any viewer with a pulse and political sensibility. What is interesting, however, is that narratively there's little question that Carl Lee was right in taking the law into his hands, as the fallibility of the judicial system is implicit. Instead, A Time to Kill delves into the morality of racism as a street that goes both ways, and the inability of either background to identify with the plights of the other on a personal level, which is far more interesting territory. The Blu-Ray includes only a theatrical trailer, as far as supplements, but boasts a high quality transfer of the film for fans.