Thriller

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Aramid Entertainment

Autonomous Films

Foresight Unlimited

Government of Saudi Arabia

Signature Entertainment

RKO Pictures

United States of America

English

Jesse Metcalfe

Amber Tamblyn

Michael Douglas

Joel David Moore

Orlando Jones

Lawrence P. Beron

Sewell Whitney

David Jensen

Sharon K. London

Krystal Kofie

Randal Reeder

Ryan Glorioso

Jon McCarthy

Grant James

Eric Gipson

Darcel White Moreno

Megan Brown

Michele Williams

Wallace Merck

Robert Larriviere

Juli Erickson

Carrie Slaughter

Tony Bentley

Andrei Constantinescu

John McConnell

Meade Patton

Sigal Diamant

Illana Diamont

Gerry May

Carl Savering

Kelvin Payton

Fred Ellis

Edrick Browne

Ron Flagge

David Born

James Harlon Palmer

Dan Harville

Peter Hyams

Robbie Banfitch

Douglas Morrow

Jonathan S. Marshall

Allan Zeman

Michael A. Helfant

Michael P. Flannigan

Joshua Throne

Ted Hartley

Moshe Diamant

John Hyams

Laura Ivey

Limor Diamant

Stephanie Caleb

Courtney Solomon

Mark Damon

Mark Brooke

Olga Tymshan

Aaron Ray

James Portolese

Faisal S. Al-Saud

Tamara Birkemoe

Susanna Puisto

Kevin Cornish

Steven Saxton

Steve Kelso

Jeremy Fry

Bryan Carrigan

Jack Lynch

Jeff Gullo

James A. Gelarden

Kevin Hardison

Brent Findley

David Shire

Hannah Beachler

Gary Hymes

John Lands

Kathy Jarvis

Laura Albert

Christopher Nash

Why would a man frame himself... for murder? 

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is directed by Peter Hyams and Hyams adapts the screenplay from Douglas Morrow's story/screenplay for the 1956 film of the same name. It stars Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Douglas, Joel David Moore and Orlando Jones. Music is by David Shire and Hyams also tackles cinematography duties. 

C.J. Nicholas (Metcalfe) is a journalist aiming for high things. He is convinced that high profile lawyer Mark Hunter (Douglas) is corrupting legal issues and sets about proving it... 

The 1956 film was the great Fritz Lang's last American film, more court drama than being overtly film noir, it was a film well tuned into legalities of its time. Hyams here updates to a modern era setting and it is fanciful - due to the advancements in technology - in the extreme. Of course those things can often be forgivable if the film is well put together and holds some thriller/drama weight. 

The look of the film is cheap, as in a TV movie look, with the cinematography uninspiring, the young cast members hardly turn in characterisations to care for, while Douglas (who is very good) is surprisingly under used. The story is a fascinating one as per human foibles, and there's a double whammy stroll down twister street that lifts the film to a rewarding closure. But it's still a disappointment, and this even if you haven't seen Lang's far superior 56 film. 6/10

The only thing that’s beyond a reasonable doubt here is this movie’s stupidity. The film opens with District Attorney Mark Hunter (Michael Douglas) addressing the jury at a murder trial: “The defense would like to tell you that our entire case is circumstantial. There are no eyewitnesses, no ballistic match, no alibi." Odd. One would think that a prosecutor who has scored 17 murder convictions in a row would view the absence of an alibi as something that favors the prosecution and not the defense.

Reporter C.J. Nicholas (Jesse Metcalfe) is convinced that Hunter is corrupt; all 17 convictions were decided by DNA evidence that 
Nicholas is certain was planted in some way by Hunter. For example, a cigarette butt photographed at a crime scene belongs to a cigarette the defendant is shown smoking in an interrogation video; Nicholas's boss asks him rhetorically, "How could someone plant the cigarette at the crime scene when the interrogation took place three days after the crime scene photographs were taken?"

Undaunted, Nicholas concocts a harebrained scheme to frame himself for the murder of a prostitute using circumstantial evidence (we know it’s harebrained because is a Life of David Gale ripoff). This includes buying a balaclava (and macing it while he’s wearing it. D’oh!) and a pair of sneakers from an "extremely rare" brand that "they stopped making in 1999."

These shoes leave a footprint that matches in “size and weight” one found at the crime scene. I'd say this is a hint that (spoiler) Nicholas is the killer after all (otherwise the "size and weight" thing would be a huge coincidence), but that would be giving Hyams too much credit — especially considering that Nicholas forces a poor Jack Russell to bite him in the calf of his left leg, to recreate the bite received by the murderer courtesy of a witness's dog; however, since he really is the killer, this means he already has a bite mark. 

The second bite occurs off-camera, which leads me to assume either Nicholas managed to get the second dog to bite him in exactly the same place as the first, or that Corey (Joel David Moore), his friend and accomplice (in everything but the murder), who is also supposedly a journalist, is unable to tell the difference between a fresh dog bite and an old one. And let's not even talk about the sneakers of which Nicholas actually owns two pairs (so much for «extremely rare»).

The icing on the bullshit cake is that Nicholas's plan depends entirely on Hunter actually being corrupt and willing to plant evidence, even though it's been well established that this is nothing more than a hunch on Nicholas's part, all his evidence of it nothing but pure speculation.

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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

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Cast

Jesse Metcalfe

Amber Tamblyn

Michael Douglas

Joel David Moore

Orlando Jones

Lawrence P. Beron

Sewell Whitney

David Jensen

Sharon K. London

Krystal Kofie

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