''Trial and Error'' is a 1997 American
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as ''Clue'', ''Nuns on the Run'', ''My Cousin Vinny'', and ''The Whole Nine Yards''. He also c ...
and starring
Michael Richards
Michael Anthony Richards (born July 24, 1949) is an American actor, writer, television producer, and comedian best known for playing Cosmo Kramer on the television sitcom '' Seinfeld''. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, first enterin ...
,
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and playwright, known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accol ...
and
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron ( ; ; born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 20 ...
. The film's plot concerns an attorney and his actor friend, who takes his place in court to defend his boss's hopelessly guilty relative.
It was the final New Line Cinema film to have a
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
byline at the bottom of the logo, before it was acquired by
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
on October 10, 1996.
Plot
Charlie Tuttle has just been made partner in a successful law firm, Whitfield and Morris. His boss and future father-in-law sends him to
Paradise Bluff, Nevada, to request a
continuance
In American procedural law, a continuance is the postponement of a hearing, trial, or other scheduled court proceeding at the request of either or both parties in the dispute, or by the judge ''sua sponte''. In response to delays in bringing cases ...
in a mail fraud case involving a cousin-in-law who is likely to be found guilty. But the timing of the trip conflicts with Charlie's bachelor party. After Charlie drives from California to Paradise Bluff, he is unexpectedly greeted by his best man, actor Richard Rietti, who is determined to show his friend a great time prior to his wedding.
During the celebration, Charlie is knocked out in a barfight, and is later prescribed painkillers for the resulting pain. The next day — the day of the court appearance — Richard checks on his friend and finds Charlie has taken all of the pills in the bottle. Charlie winds up in no shape to appear in court that day, as
legal counsel
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, ...
for con artist Benny Gibbs, so Richard impersonates Charlie. When the case unexpectedly goes to trial, Richard and Charlie must continue the charade, or they both will go to prison for perpetrating a fraud upon the court.
Charlie coaches Richard as to the use of the
rules of evidence
The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of fa ...
, masquerading as Richard's "assistant", surreptitiously using flash cards to tell Richard which basis for objection to use. Charlie eventually loses his temper and screams at the Judge Paul Graff, trying to overrule Charlie, when Richard disobeys Charlie and takes the "defense" in a broader direction, and Charlie is banned from reentering the courthouse. Later, Richard and Charlie devise a communication system involving a
baby monitor
A baby monitor, also known as a baby alarm, is a radio system used to remotely listen to sounds made by an infant. An audio monitor consists of a transmitter unit, equipped with a microphone, placed near to the child. It transmits the sounds by ...
and
morse-code sounding of Charlie's vehicle's horn, heard through an open window, to instruct Richard as to which type of objection to use.
During the course of the story, Charlie meets and falls in love with an attractive waitress named Billie Tyler who causes Charlie to rethink his impending wedding to his shrill, self-absorbed fiancée, Tiffany. As the trial nears its end, Richard becomes involved with the prosecutor, Elizabeth against whom he ultimately finds
due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
for "his client".
Cast
Reception
Despite Richards' popularity on ''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
'', and Daniels' success as a comic actor in ''
Dumb and Dumber
''Dumb and Dumber'' is a 1994 American buddy comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly, who cowrote the screenplay with Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin. It is the first installment in the ''Dumb and Dumber'' franchise. Starring Jim Carrey and ...
'', ''Trial and Error'' was a box office disappointment and earned mixed critical reviews. ''Trial and Error'' and earned only around $13 million domestically against a $25 million budget, and holds a rating of 50% on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 36 reviews. The site's consensus states: "''Trial and Error'' gets some laughs out of the comedic chemistry between its pleasantly mismatched leads, although the results are still somewhat less than memorable."
Positive appraisals came from
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
and
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
, both awarding it three stars out of a possible four. Ebert thought the film was reminiscent of
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holl ...
's understated comedies, which "got a lot of the laughs by playing scenes straight" rather than going for obvious comedic gags.
Many critics noted similarities to director
Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as ''Clue'', ''Nuns on the Run'', ''My Cousin Vinny'', and ''The Whole Nine Yards''. He also c ...
's earlier critically and commercially successful courtroom comedy ''
My Cousin Vinny
''My Cousin Vinny'' is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Jonathan Lynn, and written by Dale Launer, who also produced with Paul Schiff. The film stars Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield, Lane Smith, Bruce McGill, a ...
''.
Austin Pendleton
Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...
, who played defense attorney John Gibbons in ''My Cousin Vinny'', also appeared in ''Trial and Error'', this time as the judge.
References
External links
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{{Jonathan Lynn
1997 films
1997 romantic comedy films
1990s English-language films
1990s screwball comedy films
American courtroom films
American screwball comedy films
Films about actors
Films about lawyers
Films set in Nevada
Films directed by Jonathan Lynn
Films produced by Jonathan Lynn
Legal comedy films
New Line Cinema films
1990s American films