The screenplay, written by Jeb Stuart and Peter Stone, is based on the novel by John Katzenbach. Protagonist is Paul Armstrong (played by Sean Connery), Harvard law professor whose legal expertise is matched only by his vocal opposition to death penalty. After 25 years he decides to put his practical skills to good use when he finds about Bobby Earl (played by Blair Underwood), young black man in Florida death row, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of little white girl. Earl claims that he didn't commit this crime and that his confession was the result of brutal police beating. Soon after arriving in Florida and experiencing small-town hostility and bias, Armstrong quickly realises that the young man is indeed innocent and that the real killer might be someone else.

JUST CAUSE could have dealt with death penalty or race relations in New South and still remained an interesting and exciting thriller. Unfortunately, scriptwriters Frost and Stone used those elements only as plot devices, desperately trying to compensate inadequacies of formulaic plot, burdened with a twist that would hardly be surprising to any experienced viewer. Even the presence of otherwise reliable actors can't save this mess of a movie ? Sean Connery is terribly unconvincing in the role of mild-mannered Harvard scholar who turns into action superhero at the end, while Ed Harris overacts while unsuccessfully trying to make his psychopathic character meaner than Hopkins' in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. On the other hand, Laurence Fishburne is at least interesting in his portrayal of black detective? the only non-cliched

character in JUST CAUSE. Unfortunately, his efforts weren't enough to save this film from well-deserved descent to cinema oblivion.