Paris Trout

Adapted by Pete Dexter from his own National Book Award-winning novel, Paris Trout originally aired as a made-for-cable movie on HBO. Although made-for-cable movies often means diluted subject matter, Dexter's screenplay pulls no punches--all of the disturbing scenes in the book are transferred intact to the screen. Set in the deep South, the film stars Dennis Hopper as the title character, an enigmatically evil man who shoots and kills a 12-year-old black girl when her brother refuses to make a payment on a car Paris sold him. In Trout's twisted mind, the murder was an "accident"--an unfortunate corollary of a business deal that went awry. When a young attorney decides to go after Trout, Harry Seagraves (Ed Harris) the town lawyer, struggles with both the evidence and his conscience as he tries to get Trout off the hook. Complicating matters is Trout's wife (Barbara Hershey), a mistreated woman who loathes and leaves Paris, but finds herself drawn to Seagraves. The intricacy of the psychological attraction and repulsion between the three main characters is given full flowering in the superb performances from Hopper, Hershey, and Harris. And while director Stephen Gyllenhaal's approach is sometimes more stylistic than need be, the key dramatic scenes which are both shocking and powerful are wisely untouched: direct, no-frills cinematography, that hits you with tremendous unflinching force. Paris Trout is often an uncomfortable film to watch, but never less than compelling, and always right on the mark in its indictments of small-town injustice. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)