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People are voting emotionally.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Dramatization of events in the murder trial of once-famous record producer Phil Spector, who was accused in the shooting death of struggling actress Lana Clarkson in his Hollywood mansion in 2003. Cable offering from HBO Films (who open the movie with a disclaimer!) is a triumph for writer-director David Mamet, who succinctly examines the events of the case, coming up with no motive for murder on Spector's behalf. While typically over-the-top during the course of the proceedings, Al Pacino still manages to give a mesmerizing performance; his portrait of Spector is, by turns, strange, sad, deluded, self-amused and amusing, and utterly out of control. Spector is a lunatic, but does that make him a murderer? Mamet isn't so sure, and provides for us great food for thought. Helen Mirren, as defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden (with a nagging cold) is nearly as masterful as Pacino. Nominated for 11 Emmy Awards, the film surprisingly came up empty-handed; nevertheless, a superlative achievement.

I have deducted 2 marks due to the ludicrous disclaimer by the film makers at the beginning of the movie. The lead actor in this "fiction" portrays someone who is a loathsome, unpleasant person, totally self centered, greedy and obsessed.In brief: a famous ex music producer is accused of picking up a woman, bringing her to his home and then when he did not get his way he put a gun in her mouth and shot her to death. After the killing he admitted to his chauffeur he had killed her. There was evidence at trial that on other occasions he had brought women home and threatened them in different ways with a gun.The defense argued the lack of blood splatter on his clothes shows the accused was not guilty and that the death was either an accident or suicide.As to the lack of blood splatter the defense lawyers could and should have found a way to show convincingly to the jury that that issue caused reasonable doubt.But obviously the defense failed to do that, and have to wonder if it was really an issue at all.The movie tries to persuade the viewer that however lacking in human kindness the accused is some how innocent. Well the jury thought otherwise; the appeal courts the same.....and me too!Decent performances in the picture, but sometimes the victims of such atrocities need a voice too and that is sadly lacking in this film:5/10.

***SPOILERS*** Excellent portrayal by actor Al Pacino of legendary pop music pioneer as well as song writer & producer Phil Spector who's high flying career in the music industry came to a sudden crash on February 3, 2003. It was then that aspiring actress Lana Clarkson was found shot to death, with a bullet in her mouth, in his mansion, or castle as he called it, with Phil being the only one at the scene. Arrested for murder Spector hired top NY defense attorney Bruce Cutler, Jeffery Tambor, the guy who successfully defended mob boss John Gotti to represent him in court. As things turned out Cutler had to drop out of the case due to prior commitments leaving his assistant Hellen Mirren, Linda Kennedy Baden, to defend him.Spector who's talent was only matched by his bazaar and arrogance behavior soon turned out to be the his own worst enemy at his murder trial. Being difficult to control by his lawyer Miss. Baden Spector despite the evidence that could be proved him innocent turned the public against him not in his accused murder of Miss. Clarkson but his totally indifferent to the charges against him as if they were some kind of joke on Spector's part. It at first seemed like a slam dunk in favor of Spector in the blood splatter evidence that seemed to show that he was nowhere near Miss. Clarkson at the time of her death. Thus proving that Clarkson's death was the result of either a suicide or accidental shooting not murder but his behavior in court,which included wearing a number of ridicules wigs,made the jury overlook those important facts in his murder trial.***SPOILERS***It was after a hung jury at his first trail that Spector was retried that in the end sealed his fate. With a frustrated Linda Baden doing everything to convince the jury to find Spector innocent she also contracted pneumonia undercutting her attempts to successfully defend him.In the end and after the film, which was released before the jury verdict, was over Spector in his second trial got all that was coming to him. Not in that the jury finding him guilty of murder but in him doing everything he could to make that possible by his strange and bazaar antics both in court and in public. What would have been a run of the mill made for TV movie was elevated by both actors Pacino & Mirren in the leading roles of Phil Spector & Linda Baden who gave the film the first class acting that you almost never see in made for TV movies. Pacino as the tragic music mogul Phil Spector who made a total mess of his life and those, like his estranged wife and children, near and dear to him and Linda Baden as attorney Mirren who defended her unstable client to the best of her ability. Only to have him blow the case, which could have been won by a first year law student, out of the water and her client ending up getting a 19 year prison sentence.

I just read through the reviews (9 as of this writing) and I find reactions interesting yet predictable. Yes, we can talk about performances- Pacino is "masterful"! Mirren is "pure class"! Yes, we can talk about Mamet's writing style. I guess that, for me, these are reviews seemingly by film students and not people who paid attention to not the technical details but what the movie is about.It is, in my mind, less about Phil Spector, and more about the legal system, about understanding society's inclination toward prejudging, presuming guilt, casting the first stone, and it's inability to distinguish between an eccentric and a psychotic. As for the performances, did we suddenly expect poor acting from the talent of this cast? They're good actors and they delivered as expected. I don't think the reviews are helpful when they focus on such trivialities.Anyway, I thought it was interesting, reflective... but not a "masterpiece". Absolutely recommended- I'd say 7 stars.