In the great traditional of movies about city folk forced out into the wilds and finding their lives turned around by simple small-town folk, (My Cousin Vinny etc etc), this is a fun film featuring a typically straight-down-the-line performance from Jeff Daniels and an equally typical crazy loon from the hilarious Michael Richards. Daniels is the lawyer in trouble, doing a favour for his boss, defending Rip Torn's wonderfully roguish swindler the week before wedding the bosses daughter, Richards is the accident-prone actor friend along for the ride, who ends up sparking a farcical few days when he has to stand in for Daniels at the trial. The story is simple, predictable but no less fun for it, the pace is good, finding the right balance between the courtroom scenes and the shenanigans outside where Daniels is romanced away from his unappealing bride-to-be by a pretty, only slightly kooky Charlize Theron. It isn't a great film, doesn't have much by way of originality or innovation but doesn't claim to, it's just simple, undemanding entertainment, perfectly adequate for a bit of a giggle of a Sunday afternoon
Review of Trial and Error
