Well-crafted cable drama is troubling as an entertainment per se, but is still skillfully-made and worth-seeing for the leading performance by Dennis Hopper. Adapted from Pete Dexter's prize-winning book about racist businessman in 1949 Georgia who is tried for the murder of a black child, this atmospheric movie captures a particular time and place with style, and Hopper's acting is award-worthy (he doesn't accentuate the Southern bigotry bit with camp fervor--instead he's menacing and quite creepy). As directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal, the film is well-mounted and provocative, but with a story and characters so despicable, it does run the risk of turning off many viewers before it even gets to the second-act. **1/2 from ****
Review of Paris Trout
