Columbine predicted I would have strong feelings about this movie. I don't. I thought everyone in it was a fine actor, most especially Kevin Spacey. I thought the Marine's making a pass at Spacey totally incongruous.
The second of the two men on trial for the murder of Matthew Shephard's defense is "gay panic," in which someone who has "latent homosexual tendencies" will lash out violently if a gay person comes on to them. Oh, and he's also not guilty of murder because of alcohol and drug use, because of course using such drugs excuses people from responsibility for their actions, and even for responsibility for imbibing the altering substances at all. The "gay panic" defense relies on Freudian psychology, which I reject nearly in the whole, and on the prejudice that a homosexual come-on is a capital crime, and on the assumption that anyone homosexual is so psychologically whacked that they would be violent as well (and consequently that all psychological whackèdness can be presumed violent).
So the Marine appearing in the ritualistically absolving rain, his hesitant entry, his effeminate appearance, and his misunderstanding Kevin Spacey's embrace, I found incongruous with the rest of his character. I don't believe all homophobes have "latent homosexual tendencies"; I believe most are just hateful intolerant folks. (What kills me is the attraction a supposedly totally straight man has for two women to get it on, because apparently as long as they get it on in his presence it's not offensive, not gay.) And I believe that whole little interlude was only a set-up to provide insight into the person who pulled the trigger. Everyone had been given a motive, like in Murder on the Orient Express or in "Murder by Death." The Marine wasn't the premeditating sort, though. Too long had elapsed since the misunderstanding with his son (who would have left how much grass in his room? Unlikely) for that to be his only reason. Rejection, not defense of his son's honor, was thus given as his motive.
Overall, an excellent movie, I thought. So why don't I have strong feelings about it? I think because it was seamless. Nothing caught my eye, no blemish in the acting, no problem in continuity (which I suck at spotting anyway), no manipulation of character. Just a fine movie overall.
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