Lacking the surface glitz, attention-grabbing plot and star power of John Grisham's previous adaptations, Folley's film will also suffer due to comparisons with the similarly-themed and better Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, released last year.

Any subject, including racism, can be the legitimate material of a movie. But I am not happy when I see deep wounds in our society being opened for the purpose of entertainment.

There isn't a whole lot to the movie.

A familiar Death Row location, but it handles itself with a good deal more levity, and believability, than the other Grisham melodramas.