“You’re in over your head, Richard. You don’t have the equipment for this.”

Justin’s rating: Just in case I was leaning in that direction, this film convinced me never to be a lawyer

Justin’s review: What does it take to get you to want to see a movie? For 1997’s Trial and Error, it was about a dozen things all at once. I’d never heard of this movie, and you probably haven’t either. Yet it’s directed by the guy who did Clue and My Cousin Vinny (and happens to be another courtroom comedy). It’s headlined by Jeff Daniels and Michael Richards and Charlize Theron, and I’ll just about see anything with any of them in it. And c’mon: It’s a solid ’90s comedy, and we’ve been rationing the good ones of those for a few decades now.

Yet despite good reviews at the time and both Richards and Daniels riding high off of recent successes, Trial and Error tanked at the box office and home video and DVD releases were pretty pathetic. So it’s wallowed in obscurity, teetering on the edge of falling into cinematic oblivion. Is it worth us cult fans pulling it back from the brink?

Daniels is Charlie, a too-cool-for-school engaged lawyer who’s just made partner when he’s given an easy breezy assignment to jet out to Nevada and enter a plea for continuance of a sleezy Rip Torn until another lawyer can be assigned. However, Charlie takes his long-time best friend Richard (Richards) with him, a raucous bachelor party is thrown, and Charlie is indisposed the morning he’s due in court.

So what’s a best friend — who just so happens to be an aspiring actor — to do? Why, march in that courtroom and pretend to be the actual lawyer. This might’ve worked, even, except that Richard bungles it so bad that the case that was supposed to be delayed goes right to trial. Now he’s stuck being the lawyer, while an exasperated Charlie props him up as his assistant.

What begins as a somewhat demure trial ends up dissolving into a farce, with Charlie booted out of the court and Richard leaning more and more on a defense built around his client being a sugar-crazed man incapable of morality. I have to give a shout out to Jennifer Coolidge, who practically steals the movie as a new age doctor serving as a surprise witness to prop up this claim, and the judge, who goes gradually insane over the course of these few days.

As this, ahem, trial of errors continues, both Charlie and Richard are forced by these ridiculous circumstances out of their comfort zones and into actual growth. Charlie meets a gorgeous waitress (Theron) and starts to loosen up for the first time in his life, and Richard finds new depths as an actor that isn’t reprising Kosmo Kramer’s pratfalls.

I’m not a Seinfeld fan, but I am fond of Richards from his lovable goofball George in UHF, so I didn’t mind spending a movie with him here. But in my opinion, he took a back seat to Daniels and Theron, who are both eminently watchable. I wish Jeff Daniels was my best friend, and I wish Charlize Theron was also my best friend. I have a spot for two more best friends, so what I’m saying.

It’s also uncanny how much Trial and Error feels like a spiritual successor to My Cousin Vinny, starting with the same director, the same big-city-lawyer-comes-to-a-small-town setup, the same focus on proper courtroom procedure, and the same transformation of a newbie into a legal eagle. Perhaps the comparison is to this film’s detriment, as it’s not quite as funny or well-written as Vinny.

Yet it’s certainly not a disposable piece of trash, either. Charlie and Richard are genuinely good friends from different walks of life, and I liked seeing the two bounce off each other. There’s a wide range of comedy at hand, from broad physical stunts to intense facial gestures to absurd speeches to simplistic silliness — and it works. It’s a formula film, but it’s a formula stacked with some pretty good actors, and I won’t deny that I had a few good chuckles. I walked away with a smile on my face, and I think you will too.

Intermission!

• Hey it’s a good old fashioned walk-and-walk opening
• “The Mafia thing” involves getting beaten up by a lot of invisible bad guys
• “With so few days to go, I think you’re peaking at just the right moment.”
• Girl on a motorcycle with mystical music that implies a future connection
• Richard is a hugger and a cuddler, all night long
• “Are these all the women of your tribe?”
• Charlie completely freaking out over four possible fraud charges
• “You’re just lying in general now?”
• The Twinkie defense
• Jeff Daniels really acts with the eyes
• Dr. Brown looks like he’s 12 years old
• That’s some cheese
• Refined sugar and you
• “May I stand?” “…sure.”
• “I guess that PMS hits you really hard!”
• When a girl takes you to go shoot toilets in a junkyard, she’s a keeper
• “You kissed me back! I know you did!”
• “Who the hell am I supposed to marry now?”