The Accused (1988)

WHY I OWN IT

I can't remember the details on every movie in my DVD collection, but I'm pretty sure that my wife picked this up in a $5 bin of DVD's somewhere.

THE FILM
Running Time: 110 minutes
Directed By: Jonathan Kaplan
Written By: Tom Topor
Main Cast: Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis, Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi, Ann Heam Click here to view the trailer

"The Accused" kind of works like a glorified, more professional Lifetime movie. Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias, a young waitress who, one night, is gang raped in a bar called The Mill. She is able to flee her attackers and a courtroom drama follows, as her lawyer Kathryn Murphy (McGillis) goes so far as to take to trial the men who cheered it on and instigated it. At times the film feels really generic, from the music to the acting. Some of the acting is top notch, like Jodie Foster, who no doubt earned her Academy Award. Foster has always been a very underrated actress, even in my own mind. I always forget to remember her when I'm thinking about all the good actresses that I've seen. In "The Accused" she totally transforms herself, leaving no trace of her real self or any other characters she's played. Leo Rossi and Carmen Argenziano also turn in good supporting performances. On the other hand, I'm no fan of Kelly McGillis and some of the other supporting performances are downright awful. The music is quite generic, but it usually serves it's purpose to make the picture feel more intense or dramatic. The rape scene is incredibly vulgar and uncomfortable and I'd even go so far as to call it an even more vicious scene that the one in "Irreversible". This one had more of a story behind it and thus, just felt more powerful. By the time we even see the rape scene, that little room in the back of the bar with the pinball machine, has been built up with so much of an aura, that it makes your skin crawl to even see the characters enter into it. I love how the story in "The Accused" is always treated like a real case that they're dramatizing. In the end, I think film fans will notice both negatives and positives about "The Accused", but ultimately the positives win out.

RATING: 7/10
THE DVD

Just a trailer...

THE BOTTOM LINE

I looked and apparently this is the only edition of the movie available. It's very vanilla and provides no supplements, but fans of the film can probably find it for super cheap in a bin somewhere and even if you've never seen it, this film is worth a $5 blind buy. Jodie Foster shines and shows why she's a two-time Academy Award winner.