A Murder of Crows (1998) feels like a fairly standard made-for-tv film—not
a lot of depth, nor surprises, great locations (New Orleans and Key West), a few chase scenes, and
acting that is not required to go very deep.
The film begins with ex-lawyer Lawson Russell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) being
transferred into a New Orleans prison. Once that is established, Lawson’s
character begins voice-over narration for the whole story. He takes us back to Mardi Gras where his
character is being stalked (unknowingly) by a character in a devil costume.
Lawson is defending rich client Thurman Parks III (Eric Stoltz in a pretty
unmemorable role). Parks is guilty and when Lawson tries to give him up to the
jurors, he ends up being disbarred.
After moving to Key West to run a fishing boat and write the
novel he had been working on, he meets an elderly teacher named Christopher
Marlowe (a very obvious age makeup job) who says he has a book he’s written
about the murders of five lawyers, which he calls A Murder of Crows. Lawson reads it and returns to find the old
man, only to learn from a police detective that Marlowe has died of a heart
attack.
Lawson keeps the manuscript, rewrites it as his own and has it
published. After the book comes out and is a great success, a NOLA policeman,
Clifford Dubose (Tom Berenger) reads the book and realizes that the five
murders described are based on real cases and contain information only the
police and murderer would know. Dubose begins to hunt Lawson who now has to
find the murderer to clear himself.
There are a few plot twists that are memorable, maybe one real surprise, but on the
whole the acting was uninspired. I usually like Gooding, Berenger and Stoltz as
actors, but in the hands of a poor director, they often seem to be reading lines, ready to move on to the
next scene.
A murder of crows (the collective name for a group of crows)
is mentioned by Shakespeare in Macbeth.
There are some literary names that are important clues here, including
the name of murderer.
A Murder of Crows works as an evening’s light entertainment. ***
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