Based on a true story: Rob Lowe stars as Florida prosecutor Jeff Ashton in this riveting, true-life drama based on the infamous Casey Anthony murder trial that shocked and enraged the American public.As a Brit living in the UK, I knew nothing of the story, and what actually happened. I watched this simply because it starred Rob Lowe. Lowe stars in one of my favourite romance movie ever 'About Last Night' and I usually pay attention to anything he stars in. He has continued to impress me as he left "The Brat Pack" era of his career, and went on to 'Wayne's World' and 'Austin Powers: The Spy Who S******d Me' or his work as Sam Seaborn in TV's 'The West Wing' he is always reliable. And this is no difference, he is superb, as is everybody involved. I was blown away by everybody's work here. It was let down in several areas, but it's hard to pick faults with a movie that gets so much right.

I wasn't surprised to see that Rob Lowe soars here as prosecutor Jeff Ashton, who went head-to-head with Jose Baez in the notorious 2012 trial of Casey Anthony.This film portrays the Florida single mother as a manipulative liar who concocted her defense out of whole cloth, accusing her white-haired father -- seated in court every day -- of sexually abusing her as a child.Lowe is a very attractive man, but that doesn't detract from his believability as a state's attorney eager to win justice for a 3-year-old whom he said was killed because Casey wanted to party.Also excellent in this film is Oscar Nunez as Baez -- initially believed to lack the experience to argue a death-penalty case -- and Kevin Dunn as Casey's father, George. The older man comes across as a simple and sincere soul who tried to do right by testifying for the state.Ms. Anthony was eventually acquitted of killing her only child in a verdict that stunned many.Viewing this, I was struck by the inequality of burdens in this country between the prosecution and the defense. The state can't even bring a case unless it has enough evidence to justify a conviction. The defense can tell any story it likes, without having to prove a word of it. This is part of what makes America great. We trust that jurors will be reasonable and responsible. In this case, three words echo in one's mind -- Alas, poor Cayley!

Rob Lowe looked too young to be playing a prosecuting attorney with 30 years experience stating that this would be his last case.The movie was informative and showed a jury that was very much not in sync with 94% of the population who thought Ms. Anthony was guilty.Note how little screen time was devoted to the Anthony character.Unless the writing went astray, there certainly was controversy regarding the chloroform/ duct taping of the child.Nonetheless, this was a riveting film with Lowe giving one of his best performances in years as a slick prosecutor brought to humility at the jury's verdict.

Prosecuting Casey Anthony (2013) *** (out of 4)State lawyer Jeff Ashton (Rob Lowe) gets himself the Casey Anthony case just as he wanted so that he can turn her into the most hated woman in America but it ends up with her walking free. PROSECUTING CASEY ANTHONY is based on Ashton's book so it's to be expected that the film would show him in a positive light and Anthony in a negative one. For a Lifetime movie this here is certainly above average thanks in large part to Lowe's performance but there's still no question that there are many flaws. As someone who really followed this case, one of the first questions asked in the film is how Anthony walked away being found not guilty. In the film Ashton says he doesn't know and this is a problem with the film because the truth of the matter is that he never proved the case. For the most part the film spends way too much time going over the court case and all the big evidence or lack of evidence if you will. If someone has followed the case then none of this stuff is going to be of much interest because we know the evidence and have probably heard countless talking heads discuss it to death. The film would have been much better had it tried to give us something new including Ashton's state as these events started to unfold. The majority of the film just has him insulting the defense lawyer and this here really goes nowhere. However, as I said, the film remains watchable as a trashy made-for-TV flick but we've also got a very good performance by Lowe. I really thought he was believable as the lawyer and I liked the way the actor managed to perform with his eyes, meaning, we're able to see how he thinks and feels simply by looking into his eyes. The supporting performances are decent at best but the actors had a pretty hard job since most people are so used to their real counterparts. PROSECUTING CASEY ANTHONY certainly isn't a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but it's at least mildly entertaining.