Black and White (2002) Movie Review

Cinema is littered with "true stories" of criminal justice gone horribly wrong, and generally these films are fair, good, or borderline great. Black and White, saddled with one of cinema's most cliched titles, is square in the middle of the pack, a piece about an Australian aborigine in the 1950s who was, quite obviously, wrongly convicted for raping and murdering a young girl. And though his tale is tragic, it's framed amidst a story about how backwards the Australian legal system is, and how unprepared the man's lawyer (Robert Carlyle) is to defend him in this climate. Interesting history lesson, but the drama ultimately takes a back seat to the lecture.