A QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE
Canada, 1998, 95 minutes, Colour.
Jessica Steen, David Keith, Wendy Crewson, Nick Mancuso, Michael Ironside, Eric Johnson, Tom Butler.
Directed by Rick Stephenson.
A Question of Privilege is an interesting, if routine, crime drama. It focuses on three young men who are accused of raping and murdering a fourteen-year-old girl. They come from wealthy backgrounds and there is criticism that they will not be brought to justice. In fact, one of the boys' lawyers gives information to the police which leads to their arrest and this is deemed as illegal and so they are released on a technicality. However, three of the young men are killed.
The film focuses on a husband and wife, police and lawyer team. He is the assistant prosecutor but has known about the illegality and is upset when his wife emerges as the person who exposed the illegality. Ironically, with quite a twist, it emerges that the evidence that the wife has, a tape from a bar which catches the lawyer and the police speaking, was a set-up to effect the technicality.
The film has several twists, including the fact that it was the younger boy, who did not participate in the rape but had tried to help the girl, who accidentally kills her when she struggles with him. It also emerges that the lawyer for the rich family, who had been raped in the past, is the avenging angel who actually kills the boys.
The film has a good cast with Jessica Steen and David Keith as the husband and wife, Wendy Crewson as the avenging lawyer, Nick Mancuso as the prosecutor and Michael Ironside as one of the police.
1. Interesting and entertaining police and legal drama? Characters, the crime, the solution?
2. The Canadian settings, the city, the river, the bridge, the prisons, the police precincts? Musical score?
3. The title, its reference to legal matters, client-lawyer privilege, the wealthy family and its privilege and issues of justice?
4. Andrea and Carter, Carter and his job with the prosecutor, the possibilities of promotion? Andrea and her having worked with the prosecutor, his having dismissed her because of her support of a witness, her setting up in private practice, waiting for phone calls? The home life with their daughter? The rape case, Carter and his work? Andrea and her client in the bar, his eccentricities, getting her the tape, her seeing the policeman and the lawyer, the client pointing it out? Her realising that the lawyer had given information to the police, enough for them to arrest the boys accused of rape and murder? Her bringing this forward, the boys getting off on a technicality? Her husband's upset, his losing his job, the prosecutor thinking that she had looked through the file? The antagonism of Lieutenant Ingram? Tensions in the house, Carter at home, cooking the meal, the daughter refusing to eat the spaghetti, his upset? Andrea and her continuing to follow the case, the Tate family offering her a job?
5. Gail Sterling, the lawyer, her working for the family, Kyle Reeves and his assistance? His giving the information to the police? The irony of it being a set-up? Gail and her not working for the Tates, the discussions with Andrea, the antagonism? Her interviewing the boys on the bridge? The information given by Ian, the classical music, the phone calls in the documentation, Andrea going to see Gail, realising that she was the killer, locking her in the greenhouse, the classical music, the confrontation, Gail killing herself?
6. Stephen Healy, the prosecutor, political ambitions, antagonism towards Andrea? Sacking Carter? The new information, rehiring them? Lieutenant Ironside (Ingram?), the decorated policeman, his relentlessness, his surveillance of the boys, Andrea trying to get him to move? His taking her to see the dead boys? His reputation, his relentlessness?
7. The boys, giving the girl a lift, her being willing to go, the rape, Ian not wanting to participate? His explanation that he was there because his brother let him drive? The gang-rape, her age, her death? The final revelation that it was Ian who had killed her while trying to help her? Joel and his surliness, arrogance, towards his father, his brother, the police? At school, his fight with one of his friends, the playing baseball? The irony of the two friends being killed after these events? His anger, his disdain of the victim? At home, his father? Going out with his brother, their being pursued, his brother falling into the river, his diving to save him, his death? Ian and his seemingly in fear of his brother? The truth, his being arrested and interrogated? The father, his complicity in the plan, his knowledge of the truth, the offer to Andrea?
8. Andrea, her work, her assistant and the help, the difficulties with Carter? The interrogation of the boys, wanting the truth, her looking at the documents, going to the scenes? Her realisation of the truth?
9. The case itself, familiar material, the twists in the plot, the personalities of the investigators, the personalities of the perpetrators? An interesting mix?
