Before and After (1996)

Edward Furlong "Jacob" puts in a reasonable effort here, but otherwise this is a really unremarkable drama that muddles along despite rather than because of the two stars at the top of the bill. When a young girl is murdered, he is the suspect and so dad "Liam Neeson" immediately takes steps to help his son by destroying what looks like damning evidence. The ensuing court case pushes the usual array of buttons as the intra-familial relationships between him, his father, mother (Meryl Streep) and sister "Judith" (Julia Weldon) are strained. Alfred Molina is actually quite plausible as the win-at-all-costs lawyer "Demeris" and we plod along, glacially, to a ending about which I couldn't actually care. It's not a terrible film, all of the cast deliver what is asked of them, but the narrative meanders all over the shop all too often; the dialogue and faux-emotional scenes are flat and the ending just re-iterated a question that so many of these pointless dramas are predicated on... Why not just go to the police in the first place and rely on them to do their jobs properly?