Dramatization of events in the murder trial of once-famous record producer Phil Spector, who was accused in the shooting death of struggling actress Lana Clarkson in his Hollywood mansion in 2003. Cable offering from HBO Films (who open the movie with a disclaimer!) is a triumph for writer-director David Mamet, who succinctly examines the events of the case, coming up with no motive for murder on Spector's behalf. While typically over-the-top during the course of the proceedings, Al Pacino still manages to give a mesmerizing performance; his portrait of Spector is, by turns, strange, sad, deluded, self-amused and amusing, and utterly out of control. Spector is a lunatic, but does that make him a murderer? Mamet isn't so sure, and provides for us great food for thought. Helen Mirren, as defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden (with a nagging cold) is nearly as masterful as Pacino. Nominated for 11 Emmy Awards, the film surprisingly came up empty-handed; nevertheless, a superlative achievement.

Record producer Phil Spector (Al Pacino) hires Bruce Cutler (Jeffrey Tambor) to defend him when he's accused of murder. Cutler persuades Linda Kenney Baden (Helen Mirren) to advise him. While the prosecution's story is contradicted by facts in the case, there is convincing circumstantial evidence against Spector, not the least of which is his appearance. As Baden gradually takes over the defense, even as she is ill with pneumonia, she must find a way to introduce ballistic evidence in a dramatic enough fashion to plant doubt in the jury's mind. Calling Specter to testify may be the only way to stage the evidence. She coaches him and rehearses him: can he (and she) pull it off? Directed by David Mamet, this work is based on a real-life incident, but it comes with a disclaimer that its just a fictional tale. If anybody doesn't know about these people beforehand, then don't expect the movie to provide much more than surface level, superficial insight into the lives of these characters. Al Pacino, Helen Mirren and the rest of the highly qualified cast do a wonderful job in their mediocre roles. The movie doesn't have an electric tension as needed by such works and is slow and one can't help feeling that Phil Spector hid the whole truth from everyone right till the end. The one area where it excels is by not portraying the lead character, Linda as some sort of a hero or a villain, but as an efficient person who just does her job. Not terrible, but it lacks a point. Most of the titular character's monologues are... well, purely boring. I know that they didn't want to make a documentary, but the audience needs something to understand the main character, real or not. The whole movie builds up to the trial and it ends right before it. It was done on purpose, but the whole charade was dreadful, along with the wigs, which might actually have been the only things that imbibed characterization into Spector.5/10

HBO should have fired David Mamet and made a film based on the facts that came out in the trial. The phony claims about blood splatters that were made in Mamet's film are blatant lies, as proved by the police photos of the murder scene, and evidence that proved that Spector had to be within two feet of Clarkson.HBO could have made an electrifying film with the same cast, using the same disturbed character, but based on evidence. Pacino could have been shown walking out the back door, with the gun in his hand, after murdering Clarkson, seen by his driver, with blood on his hand. Phil Spector confessed to the murder to both his chauffeur and to a police officer at his house. The film could have shown Pacino spending 45 minutes, dipping a diaper in a toilet, and using it to wipe down the weapon and the crime scene, to cover up his crime. A nice camera angle could have repeatedly shown his phone all this time. Flashbacks of the phone could have been shown, while his revolving door of highly paid celebrity defense attorneys asked him, "If she committed suicide, why didn't you call 9-1-1?" Flashbacks could have demonstrated that Lana Clarkson was right-handed, as his attorneys asked how the gun could have ended up behind her left foot. We could have seen Pacino place it there after the crime scene cleanup, not realizing that it could not possibly be there, if she had committed suicide. His attorneys could have been shown asking him, "If she took a gun and sat down to kill herself, why would her purse strap be hanging from her dead shoulder, as though she were ready to leave your house? HBO could have shown a flashback of a member of the defense team stealing Lana Clarkson's fingernail from the crime scene, as they showed a member of the defense testifying about it. The truth was more compelling than the lies they tried to sell. Instead of a post script about the conviction, the film could have shown the courtroom verdict. The audience would have had a satisfying feeling that a rich washed-up record producer couldn't pay lawyers millions of dollars to get away with murdering an innocent woman.Al Pacino is better than this. Instead of selling out, to make this defamatory garbage, he should have insisted on going all out, and playing Phil Spector as the Bad Guy that he really was in this case.

The cast of this film is sterling throughout. There are some great parts for several legendary, at this point, character actors at work. Anyone who has a strong passion for music understands something about Phil Specter. This film gives us a workable understanding of a complex, reclusive and aggravating person at the end of a legendary life. The film clearly makes an argument about his guilt or innocence that surprised me. Most people did not follow the details of this story. I was traveling during that period and recall hearing he was convicted, which is a well known fact, so not a spoiler. This film takes us at least part of the way inside the story of his trial and the question of his true nature, and it does it very relentlessly and fairly in my view. It could have been fleshed out more, there could have been more of it...but is sure does settle some questions in a very interesting way. I was intrigued by one line that suggested Specter would be convicted to make up for not convicting OJ Simpson.I agree his trial was perhaps hopelessly poisoned at the beginning, and this film shows us some basis for this interpretation. The cast and the direction are very, very good.