Very clever script keeps the story tight and focused and never dull. This is one of the most famous modern falsely accused stories. It has a ton of news segments, documentaries, retellings. It has all the basics to be a proper news story. It's a 16 year old kid going to prison for 6 years while being a big NFL talent. So he got his career taken away. It's also a story where he is 100% innocent. No doubt whatsoever. The girl said he attacked and molested her which just was not possible. It couldn't have happened. Then later he got her on tape admitting that she made it up after she contacted him on Facebook because he looked handsome. He's also Black and young which is another media plus. And plus the girl and her mom sued the school and the school gave them $1.5m that they spent in a few years. Why? Everyone should have known the story was 100% false. Why did the school ever admit to something having happened? It's basically a perfect small news segment. What about movie? A movie is a different beast. The story is just: young talent goes to prison, gets out of prison, is found innocent. You'd think there was not enough here to warrant a movie. Well, that's where good script writing comes into play. They really did some magic on this story. We have a lot of small feel good scenes and small personal interactions. All with good acting. Even scenes like him trying to find a job or meeting a friend are made close and personal. Small talk with emotions on the sleeve. It feels like a movie that wants to be close to the viewer. And all scenes lead somewhere plot wise. He for example has a parole officer constantly on his case. Never giving him an inch. Always calling him if he even breaks a small rule. It really feels like everything is unfair in his life and especially the parole officer role is a godsent story wise as the needed antagonist. The actual antagonist cannot really be around as she's the accuser. Aldis Hodge is very kind and charismatic as the lead, but has no charisma or energy. Don't see him going anywhere as an actor with this low energy. Greg Kinnear is perfect as his lawyer, just aced all his scenes and mesmerizing. And there is a blonde lawyer working for Greg who is amazing too. Plus Morgan Freeman has a small uncredited role. So there is enough here to keep you watching just for the movie quality alone. The scenes also constantly lead to new clues, new people who can help, and new problems.
It does have some minor issues. Nothing great, but enough for me to rate it less than 8 stars. The music is fine. They just overuse cheap pop music. And there are some scenes without dialogue where we just see a bunch of shots of the lead dating and some mediocre song blasting out loud. It's so cringe. This happens time and time again, but luckily only lasts some seconds. The acting is quality, the camera work is close and personal. These editing choices at times ignore all of that and go for cheap tricks in these scenes. There are also some silly scenes where his old lawyer for example tells him that he must take a deal as the jury is White. What kind of lawyer would say this stuff? It's total nonsense. People make individual decisions. There are a lot of these small xenophobic statements that is pure whining in an overall pretty upbeat movie. Quite silly to have this in a movie, but seemingly it's in all Hollywood movies now. We can't have a movie without these weird allusions to some xenophobic ideas about the world. I'm not sure what to make of it. It also implies that some of these Black people who are about to go in front of a judge are so delusional that they say false or wrong things because of White people. They also forced in a scene of an actual molestation story where the guilty guy went free just to show viewers that "the man is not always innocent and the woman not always lying". Viewers notice such manipulation. It's a shame an otherwise quality movie has this music stuff and then the race and gender issue that clearly is low quality emotional bate. I feel like the message overall is made weaker by statements about opposite events. Plus the accuser is unfortunately only very shortly in the movie. The actress is great and all her scenes magical. A shame the director didn't use her some more. And a shame the story couldn't fit her in. She's the key to this story and her acting reveals what happened.
Good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. It does feel a bit small and not hugely important historically. But the story is nice to learn about. It's nice to explore it via a movie too. I don't see why anyone should skip it. On the other hand it's not some big Hollywood blockbuster about some important battle in WW2 showing close combat and WW2 weapons. If you skip it and watch the news segments instead I'm sure you will understand the basics still. A shame critics didn't like it. The viewers rate it well. The critics are overall not impressed. Historically it did have some very minor misses in some plot points not being shown.. Some characters written out. Some storylines removed like the school suing the girl and her mom to get their money back which they of course will never get back.
It does have some minor issues. Nothing great, but enough for me to rate it less than 8 stars. The music is fine. They just overuse cheap pop music. And there are some scenes without dialogue where we just see a bunch of shots of the lead dating and some mediocre song blasting out loud. It's so cringe. This happens time and time again, but luckily only lasts some seconds. The acting is quality, the camera work is close and personal. These editing choices at times ignore all of that and go for cheap tricks in these scenes. There are also some silly scenes where his old lawyer for example tells him that he must take a deal as the jury is White. What kind of lawyer would say this stuff? It's total nonsense. People make individual decisions. There are a lot of these small xenophobic statements that is pure whining in an overall pretty upbeat movie. Quite silly to have this in a movie, but seemingly it's in all Hollywood movies now. We can't have a movie without these weird allusions to some xenophobic ideas about the world. I'm not sure what to make of it. It also implies that some of these Black people who are about to go in front of a judge are so delusional that they say false or wrong things because of White people. They also forced in a scene of an actual molestation story where the guilty guy went free just to show viewers that "the man is not always innocent and the woman not always lying". Viewers notice such manipulation. It's a shame an otherwise quality movie has this music stuff and then the race and gender issue that clearly is low quality emotional bate. I feel like the message overall is made weaker by statements about opposite events. Plus the accuser is unfortunately only very shortly in the movie. The actress is great and all her scenes magical. A shame the director didn't use her some more. And a shame the story couldn't fit her in. She's the key to this story and her acting reveals what happened.
Good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. It does feel a bit small and not hugely important historically. But the story is nice to learn about. It's nice to explore it via a movie too. I don't see why anyone should skip it. On the other hand it's not some big Hollywood blockbuster about some important battle in WW2 showing close combat and WW2 weapons. If you skip it and watch the news segments instead I'm sure you will understand the basics still. A shame critics didn't like it. The viewers rate it well. The critics are overall not impressed. Historically it did have some very minor misses in some plot points not being shown.. Some characters written out. Some storylines removed like the school suing the girl and her mom to get their money back which they of course will never get back.