"Judicial Consent" aspires to belong to the A league of suspense thrillers about female lawyers, like "Jagged Edge" with Glenn Close or Cher's vehicle, "Suspect." Its star, the always graceful Bonnie Bedelia, does an honorable job, but the film's B plot and its lack of sustained suspense reduce it to just a pleasant generic item. Technically polished entry may enjoy a limited theatrical release, but it seems best suited to the tube, with good prospects on video.

“Judicial Consent” aspires to belong to the A league of suspense thrillers about female lawyers, like “Jagged Edge” with Glenn Close or Cher’s vehicle, “Suspect.” Its star, the always graceful Bonnie Bedelia, does an honorable job, but the film’s B plot and its lack of sustained suspense reduce it to just a pleasant generic item. Technically polished entry may enjoy a limited theatrical release, but it seems best suited to the tube, with good prospects on video.

Gwen Warwick (Bedelia) is a stern, accomplished criminal court judge, soon to be appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court. Seemingly curious and sexually unfulfilled, one night she follows Martin (Billy Wirth), a sexy law clerk, into his office, and a steamy affair evolves.

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When Gwen’s roguish colleague, Charles Matron (Dabney Coleman), “a chronic flirt,” is found dead in his office, she’s asked to preside over the case. Soon, what seemed “circumstantial” evidence turns out to be a well-planned murder, with Gwen as the prime suspect. Realizing she’s been set up, Gwen begins a desperate race against time to prove her innocence.

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The courtroom format relies heavily on finely tuned dialogue and unanticipated revelations, but Bindley’s writing, specifically in the court sequences, is borderline banal and the disclosures aren’t particularly suspenseful.

Though a first-time helmer, Bindley gives his picture a smooth and polished look, displaying some mastery over the genre’s tricks — and visual cliches. Dark lofts, swinging doors, empty parking lots and so on are all nicely handled, but they’re also familiar to an audience that always seems to be ahead of the pic’s characters.

Bedelia gives a charming, dominating performance, but the woman she plays is too intelligent and too bright to behave in such a senseless manner. For instance, lawyers, particularly women, might find offensive a sex scene in Gwen’s office in which she’s shown reaching orgasm while negotiating an important assignment on the telephone. Will Patton, usually brilliant in small, offbeat roles, is miscast here in the underwritten role of Gwen’s bland husband; we never get a sense of the kind of marriage the Warwicks have. As Martin, gifted character actor Coleman is wasted in an unrewarding role, while Wirth is there mostly to look good as the stranger with a “mysterious” motive.

Movies that know how to mix the dangerous and the erotic often make edgy, highly diverting thrillers, but “Judicial Consent” is too obvious and too conscious of its form.

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Judicial Consent

  • Production: A Rysher Entertainment production in association with Prelude Pictures. Produced by Douglas Curtis, Mark W. Koch. Executive producers, Keith Samples, William Hart. Co-producers, Michael and Atanas Ilitch. Directed, written by William Bindley.
  • Crew: Camera (Foto-Kem, color), James Glennon; editor, William Hoy; music, Christopher Young; production design, Dorian Vernacchio, Deborah Raymond; costume design, Eleanor Nyquist Patton; casting, Fern Orenstein. Reviewed at Hamptons Film Festival, Oct. 21, 1994. Running time: 101 MIN.
  • With: Gwen Warwick ... Bonnie Bedelia Alan Warwick ... Will Patton Charles Mayron ... Dabney Coleman Martin ... Billy Wirth District attorney ... Lisa Blount

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