Literally Speaking: Just Cause
To date John Katzenbach has had three of his books adapted for the big screen - The Mean Season (1985) Hart’s War (2002) and in the middle this legal/detective/serial killer thriller from 1995 (sadly no one has yet filmed The Traveller which is a book just crying out for the big screen). This is probably the best of the three and is a solid, if unexceptional, thriller.
The plot probably won’t keep you guessing to long, once you realise there’s a twist (and you will fairly early if you’ve seen more than a couple of these) it’s not a hard one to see coming, but it still manages to entertain. Sean Connery is as commanding as ever, although his liberal-do-gooder-lawyer, Paul Armstrong, is a little more restrained and intellectual than his usual characters, which makes for a pleasant change. If Sheriff Tanny Brown at first appears to be your typical corrupt cop Laurence Fishburne at least manages to add a little more depth, and reason, to him, with hardly anything to work with other than a short scene with his children.
