Watch Cause célèbre For Free

Very disappointed :(

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This was Rattigan's final play for the theatre - he wrote it for radio, adapted it for the stage where it was still running when he died. Rattigan was a world-class dramatist with a great gift for constructing a play solidly from the ground up; Ken Taylor is a pedestrian writer who spent virtually his whole career in television so why he saw fit to tamper with Rattigan to the extent that he all but eliminated the sup-plot involving the fictional female jury member who Rattigan created deliberately as a counterpoint to Alma is anyone's guess. Though devotees of the play - which has just been revived at the Old Vic in Rattigan's centenary year - will be disappointed and/or outraged audiences knowing nothing of the play will be able to bask in the fine acting and period detail on offer. I saw this for the first time in the Mediateque at the South Bank Centre, one of five TV versions of Rattigan dramas added this month to complement the mini season of Rattigan films that will run throughout April and though the usual suspects have been wheeled out we are still missing The Deep Blue Sea, The Man Who Loved Redheads, While The Sun Shines, The Yellow Rolls Royce, Goodbye, Mr. Chips to name only a few. Meanwhile Cause Celebre is still worth watching despite Mr Taylor's cleaver.

If you are thinking about watching this movie, just be aware that it is NOT a murder "mystery" as such. Unfortunately, I got the DVD thinking it was more of an Agatha Christie type story, and spent the entire time trying to figure out who really "done it." I was very disappointed when the typical twists and turns of a true mystery didn't materialize.If my expectations had been different, I might have enjoyed this movie more. The set design was superb, as was most of the acting and the dialog (although, without subtitles, the British accent was a bit difficult for me to understand at times).On the other hand, I might have been disappointed anyway, since the story is somewhat disjointed and I never bought into the relationships between the characters (the two mismatched lovers, the husband and wife, the wife and 'companion' etc.) The story might have been true, but that doesn't necessarily make it a good movie.

As usual, Helen Mirren has it all wrapped up. I knew it would be great when she goes from smiling to weeping in the course of 10 seconds at the piano scene near the beginning of the film. Amazing how she does that. THis character seemed lighter than most of the characters she plays--but underneath you know that she is suffering and drowning in her despair from the very beginning. You think that the woman is hopelessly flawed because of her seemingly superficial need for money and status, and for her interest in a much younger man. Then you realize she is playing such a complicated character that you can't even imagine how she did it. Helen mirren. Amazing.

Is it any wonder that the Brits kick our butts when it comes to putting out good theater? Look at this cast: Helen Mirren, David Morrissey, Harry Andrews and David Suchet in a pre-Hercule Poirot role as a barrister. The story based on a defense of a woman's (Mirren) live-in handy-man lover (Morrissey) who violently kills her elderly impotent husband (Andrews). The barrister mounts a defense of how this younger, naive man misinterpreted the woman's involvement with him. The case takes strange twists as the woman winds the unwilling other victim whose only crime is one of indiscretion. Fine, fine acting and a gripping, well-written drama. I'm amazed it is not available on video. If it rolls around on PBS, be sure to check it out.