Film Review: Legal Eagles (1986)

(source: tmdb.org)

Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman has recently passed away and many cinephiles were reminded of his iconic comedies like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. His career, like with all celebrated film makers, also had works that were less than memorable. One of those was 1986 crime comedy Legal Eagles.

The plot begins in 1968 New York where up-and-coming painter loses his life and all of his works in fire which is survived by his 8-year old daughter Chelsea. Many years later Chelsea (played by Daryl Hannah), now an eccentric performance artist, gets arrested and tried for attempted burglary in the galleries belonging to one of her later father’s shady friends, now successful art dealers. Chelsea is represented by Laura Kelly (played by Debra Winger), defence attorney prone for using unconventional tactics to set her clients free. She actually manages to recruit Assistant District Attorney Tom Logan (played by Robert Redford) to help her cause. Two lawyers, despite being on the opposite sides, join forces in order to investigate Chelsea’s claims that her father’s work has been stolen. The investigation gets complicated when one of dealers get murdered, Logan gets embroiled in sex scandal that would force him to quit his position, while both him and Kelly actually risk their lives when facing certain nefarious characters who would stop at nothing to prevent the actual truth being revealed.

Despite being one of the more forgettable films of its time, Legal Eagles had actually quite good performance at the box office. This was most due to being released in era when names and faces on poster still mattered to prospective audience. This film had quite impressive cast. Robert Redford, still maintaining boyish looks and status of a sex symbol in his middle age, worked hard to prove that he could play in comedy. Daryl Hannah was interesting as an attractive but slightly “off” and naive character, one of many she would play at that point of her career. The best was Debra Winger, immensely talented actress who in Legal Eagles not only played one of rare comic roles of her career, but also looked the most charming and attractive.

Their efforts, however, were in vain because of terrible script by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. Originally developed as buddy buddy comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray, Legal Eagles was during pre-production transformed into something that was supposed to be romantic comedy, very much inspired by classic films starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The actual script, however, failed to deliver much humour while Redford and Winger simply lacked chemistry in their scenes together. Another problem is in rapid tonal and genre shifts – from rather disturbing prologue featuring child in mortal danger towards lame combination of courtroom drama, pseudo-Hitchcockian thriller and plot twists that can be easily predicted even by less experienced audience. Another interesting detail is large budget, quite unusual for this sort of films, and that can be explained by rather spectacular use of pyrotechnics. Final result is overlong film that tries too much to be many different things at once and failing at each such tasks. Fans of Law & Order might appreciate this film because of Steven Hill, actor playing Logan’s boss in a role somewhat similar to the character of Adam Schiff in popular TV series.

RATING: 3/10 (+)