Indeed, Laura Dern on the cover made me pick this film. Dern only enters the stage half way though.
Todd is a bad ass. Unemployed, often drunk, aggressive. When his trailer catches fire and his three daughters burn to death, everybody is convinced that Todd is to blame. Het gets the death penalty.
Many years Todd stays on death row. Quite accidentally he comes in contact with Elizabeth (Dern). First they correspond, then Elizabeth starts to visit Todd in jail and again later she starts to dig into Todd’s trial. All kind of inconsistenties surface. Even though Todd has appealed before, Elizabeth’s persistence leads to new (interpretation of) evidence making more and more people question the verdict, but in the mean time Todd gets the date.
Obviously, the film is to cast doubt to the death penalty. Todd’s case is an obvious one of a ‘usual suspect’. Sure, he was to blame for many things, but does that make him a murderer?
An alright drama.
