This muted courtroom drama is reasonably intelligent and cynically observant, but overall impact is constipated. With the pedigree of a John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion script, one expects knockout. Instead, this judicial expose lets ethical issues roll around tantalizingly but
independent of the plot mechanics.
A proponent of a strict judicial code, third-generation judge Tim Nash (Tom Selleck) upholds a family tradition of moral rectitude. Approached by ruthless Federal agents, Neil Roemer (William Atherton) and his second-in-command Janice Diller (Elizabeth McGovern), Nash reluctantly takes part in a
bribery-sting operation to nail corrupt associates. Roemer initiates a test operation involving Judge Harry Ashley (Charles Haid) but this veteran crook is too sly to fall for a sweet deal involving police snitch Louis Dale (Rob LaBelle). By the time Nash suffers second and third thoughts, lawyers
in Nash's ongoing homicide case smell a rat in Louis Dale and sense possible leverage against Nash's impending ruling. Meanwhile Roemer tries to keep the rebellious Nash in line by showing him certifiable proof that his upstanding father Lionel (Fritz Weaver) benefitted financially from a 1964
zoning verdict. Before long, Nash is setting up lifelong friends like Ruthie Fraser (Marsha Mason), for feds whose methods are more repellent than the greased-palm court officers. After Ruthie shoots herself in front of Nash, Agent Diller provides Nash, now her lover, with dirt on Roemer that will
free Nash from his duties and promote her at her boss's expense. Nash maintains his family image but is shunned as a pariah by the other judges. The government victory against influence-peddlers seems Pyrrhic.
What distinguishes BROKEN TRUST is its pessimistic ambiance. What's-in-it-for-me relationships prevail in a moral vacuum where honor is an anachronism. In this worldview, the definition of right and wrong is written on shifting sands. Although officials like Ruthie break the law, their
motives---like easing divorce settlement payments--are understandably human ones. Without condoning such acts, BROKEN TRUST assumes an ambiguous position regarding how much good is accomplished by wrecking distinguished careers. Not only will other questionable officials take their place, but the
worst offenders like Ashley never get caught. The movie does unequivocably smear government agents like Roemer who blindside others not out of conviction but for their own career advancement. But BROKEN TRUST has problems compressing these complexities and then addressing them through the
give-and-take dialogue and the distraction of a canned thriller subplot about Dale's fatal wrangle with a sleazy attorney threatening to blow his cover. Designated hot topics stick out like lumps of oatmeal in a screenplay which relies more on mouthpieces than fully-drawn characters. The cast
seems at half-mast here as if burdened by weighty themes. As in his other demanding dramatic appearances, Selleck offers muffled intensity; his one-note thesping fails to chart his character's rising inner turmoil. Adroitly produced and reverentially directed, BROKEN TRUST was made for cable TV
and should engross fans of legal melodramas. What it wants to do--but never does--is stir passions. (Violence, profanity, substance abuse, adult situations, sexual situations.) leave a comment
