Trial and Error

Director Jonathan Lynn doesn't stray far from the tired premise of his 1991 hit comedy My Cousin Vinny in his tepid new film. Jeff Daniels elicits comparisons to his far superior film, Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, as Charles Tuttle, an anal and wimpy lawyer engaged to Tiffany (Angela Wentworth), the vapid and irritating daughter of the head of his law firm. On the eve of the wedding he's sent to a backwater Nevada town to defend Benny Gibbs (a wonderfully lubricious Rip Torn) on fraud charges. Determined to treat Charles to the bachelor party he's planned for him, buddy and unemployed actor Richard Rietti (Seinfeld's Michael Richards in an erratic variation on Kramer) surprises him in his hotel room, takes him to a bar, and gets him drunk. By the end of the night Charles has been beaten up and has taken an overdose of painkillers, so the next morning Richards is compelled to take his place in court.

What follows is unimaginative and listless farce spiced with a mild look at the issues of freedom and responsibility, appearance and reality. The love interests -- Billie (Charlize Theron), a waitress with a heart of gold, and Elizabeth (Jessica Steen), the anal and prickly prosecuting attorney -- provide few sparks. Despite the occasional inspired routine -- Torn's concluding appeal is a tour de force -- Trial and Error is a little of both. At the Harbour Mall, Opera House, Showcase, Tri-Boro, and Woonsocket cinemas.

-- Peter Keough