Ann Talbot (Jessica Lange) is a hard-charging divorced Chicago defense attorney. She's in disbelief when her Hungarian immigrant father Mike Laszlo (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is accused of war crimes and threatened with deportation. Prosecutor Jack Burke claims that he's the cruel death squad commander Mishka. There are witnesses and documents. However, Mike claims the communist government had manufactured the evidence to retaliate against Mike's anti-communist activity.
This is not much more than a courtroom movie. The problem is that it could be much more with the acting combo power of Lange and Mueller-Stahl. This would be more interesting if Ann discovers her father's guilt halfway through the movie. Instead, it gets bogged down with the back-and-forth of the trial. When the reveal comes, it allows Lange to do one big acting scene which she parlays into an Oscar nomination.
This is not much more than a courtroom movie. The problem is that it could be much more with the acting combo power of Lange and Mueller-Stahl. This would be more interesting if Ann discovers her father's guilt halfway through the movie. Instead, it gets bogged down with the back-and-forth of the trial. When the reveal comes, it allows Lange to do one big acting scene which she parlays into an Oscar nomination.