The Belgian film “The Verdict” (“Het Vonnis”, by Jan
Verheyen), indeed provides courtroom drama about vigilantism and taking the law
into one’s own hands.
Luc Segers (Koen de Bouw), a rising business man in
Brussels, with his wife and daughter, stop at a gas station at night. The wife is murdered in a robbery gone bad, a
scene particularly brutal, by Kenny de Groot (Hendrik Aerts), and the daughter
his killed by a car when she runs into the nearby road. Luc is put into a coma by the attacker but
recovers fully.
Luc identifies Kenny in a photo and the police trace him to
an auto repair shop, and arrest him. He has a long rap sheet. But a procedural error forces the government
to drop all charges. Luc gets an illegal
weapon and executes Kenny at the shot, with a scene shown only in flashback from the trial that follows. Luc goes for the strategy of “irresistible impulse”
to try to get acquitted. The entire
European model for justice is put on trial.
We learn that Kenny was given up by his well-off parents to
a foster home because as a child he wet the bed too much. He didn’t get he life “he deserved”. The whole film turns into a meditation on why
bad things happen.
I saw the film as the Avalon in Washington, on a large
curved screen (2.35:1), as part of Filmfest DC.
The auditorium was about half sold.
The official site (Eyeworks films) is
here. I don’t know if there is a US distributor
yet, but it looks like the sort of film that could come from Music Box, Cohen
Media, Sony, or even Strand. This is a
big budget, very professionally produced film from Flanders sources.
The film is in Dutch, which sounds so close the English that
you almost don’t need the subtitles.
I have to say that the mood of the film is relentless. There
is no “Timo Descamps” to cheer things up.
The outdoor scenery of Gent (a bigger city than I thought) is quite
impressive.
There was another film in 1982 called “The Verdict”, by
Sidney Lumet, where a lawyer takes a medical marijuana case to trial, with Paul
Newman. I recall seeing it in
Dallas.
Wikipedia attribution
link for picture of Antwerp (I was there in May 2001).
April 28: additional thought:
I would say that Luc should have been convicted, but there is no way Denny could be a "victim". Sometimes two wrongs make a right, but both wrongs must be separately punished. Everybody loses. Otherwise there is only forgiveness.
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