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The Trial

The Trial

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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color
  • Dolby


Description:

On the morning of his 30th birthday, senior bank clerk Josef K. is put under arrest by men who refuse to identify themselves. He's not taken into custody, and nobody will--or even can--tell him the charges against him. Josef refuses to take it seriously, and thus begins his descent into the mad vagaries of a court system that is as enigmatic as it is ominous. This BBC coproduction of the Franz Kafka book features a screenplay by Harold Pinter (Turtle Diary, The French Lieutenant's Woman) that starts out full of wit and menace, but loses steam in the second half and delivers a flat and confusing ending. Kyle MacLachlan is perfectly cast as a sort of yuppie Josef K. who's so self-involved and complacent that he cannot express proper outrage at the injustice. Although he's second-billed, Anthony Hopkins's role as the priest is more of a cameo. Polly Walker and Alfred Molina (a standout as the court painter, Titorelli) both seem to get Kafka's cosmic joke. Beautifully filmed in Prague. --Geof Miller
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