McConaughey's second film of 1996 allowed him a little more screen time (and, weirdly, has Chris Cooper in a small supporting role). A Time to Kill is a courtroom drama from a time when you couldn't swing a Grisham without hitting a courtroom drama, but it stands out from its legion of contemporaries with a complex plot and a particularly striking set of performances, headlined by McConaughey himself as defense lawyer Jake Tyler Brigance. In fact, playing a lawyer seems to bookend the McConaughey wilderness years, but we'll get to that soon enough. It's a film that's never knowingly understated - which, from the director of Batman and Robin, from a book by the author of The Firm, isn't surprising - but the fablestic story matches the bombastic tone. Brigance takes it upon himself to defend Samuel L Jackson's Carl Lee Hailey, accused of murdering the two men who sexually assaulted his 10-year-old daughter. Strong stuff, and the themes of race, justice and revenge allow it to rise above the standard of Grisham's other potboilers. Everyone in the cast is as the top of their game, from the righteously angry and grieving Jackson to hungry, upcoming legal aid Sandra Bullock, to Kevin Spacey as the arrogant attorney for the prosecution who takes on the highly publicised case to help his campaign for District Attorney. McConaughey, though, steals the show not just as the protagonist but as a three-dimensional character whose motivations for representing Hailey may be just as selfish as Spacey's. He is charismatic without being smug, conflicted without being cliched, and his closing monologue might not match Jackson's famous line (later used to sell beer) for intensity, but certainly does for sheer grandstanding acting.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
