Anthony Hopkins is superb in this UK mini-series about in which a successful lawyer's mid-life crisis leads to murder-for-hire, blind ambition and emotional blackmail.
Like many middle-aged men, English barrister John Strickland (Hopkins), is going through a restless phase: He's tired of his wife, Clare (Ciaran Madden), and he's tired of the law – he's considering a switch to politics, an enthusiasm Clare doesn't share. He's so preoccupied with his mid-life angst that his work suffers; at best, the defense he provides for clients like Terry Pike (Christopher Fulford) is perfunctory; Pike is convicted and spends his jail time nursing a serious grudge. Though Strickland and Clare have drifted apart, he continues to expect her to appear dutifully at official functions and never gives a thought to how she feels about her crumbling marriage. After a
near-disastrous flirtation with the daughter of a family friend, Strickland falls for Paula Gerrard (Lise Hilboldt), a cosmopolitan socialite/social worker. Paula isn't willing to play backstreet woman indefinitely and points out that she'd make the perfect politician’s wife: How convenient that someone chooses this juncture to murder Clare and her new lover. True to form, Strickland's reaction is a combination of grief and hypocritical fury that he was being cuckolded; he does, however, recognize his responsibility to his young children. Meanwhile, good Samaritan Paula, who has a history with Pike, persuades Strickland to make up for his former lapse and represent Pike when he's brought up on new charges. Could she have been Pike's lover?
Screenwriter Derek Marlow beautifully captures the autumnal regret that suffuses Piers Paul Read’s novel, and directors John Howard Davies and Charles Jarrott give the phenomenal cast plenty of room to romp through this gripping tale. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
