sean connery stars as a harvard law professor who heads back into the courtroom , by way of the everglades , to defend a young , educated black man ( blair underwood ) . the guy is on death row for the murder of a white girl , and says that his confession was coerced from the region's tough , black cop ( lawrence fishburne ) . watching connery and fishburne bump heads for two hours is amusing enough , but <NEG> the plot's a joke </NEG> . there's <NEG> no logic at work here </NEG> . <NEG> tone is also an issue -- there is none </NEG> . director arne glimcher <NEG> never establishes </NEG> exactly what his film is trying to say . is it a statement on human rights ? is it a knock-off of silence of the lambs ? glimcher never tells . instead , he forces his characters to jump through hoop after hoop , over drawbridge after drawbridge , hoping that the audience won't notice what's missing . <NEG> just awful </NEG> .
