This is a fine adaptation of the memoir by Deborah Lipstadt, a Jewish historian who was sued for libel by a holocaust denier in 1996. Mostly a courtroom drama, in England (wigs and all), it features a wonderful performance by Rachel Weisz (last blogged for Complete Unknown) as Lipstatdt, complete with brash New York accent (Weisz is English) and attitude. A slimmed down Timothy Spall (most recently in Mr. Turner) plays her determined accuser David Irving with zeal, and her defense team is headed up by Tom Wilkinson (last in Selma as LBJ) as Richard Rampton and Andrew Scott (one of the "Lesbians & Gays Supporting the Miners" in Pride) as Anthony Julius. The somber judge is practically a cameo by Alex Jennings, who was so delightfully droll in The Lady in the Van.
Director Mick Jackson has many credits, mostly in television, but I saw and liked the feature comedy L.A. Story (1991), the drama The Bodyguard (1992), and the TV movie Live from Baghdad (2002). He obviously is comfortable with his job at the helm. David Hare (Oscar-nominated for adapting The Hours (2002) and The Reader) adapted Lipstadt's book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier and it chugs along nicely. Apparently all of the courtroom dialogue is taken verbatim from the trial records.
I thought it might be a problem with continuity when Weisz's hair seems to change color from red to brown frequently, but then, when I looked up photos of the real Lipstadt, hers does the same thing.
The music by Howard Shore (last blogged for Spotlight) can be streamed by starting with this link and continuing to all the suggested videos with the same image.
Rotten Tomatoes' audiences and critics are tied at 78%. Jack and I thought it better than that and urge you to see it.
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