The Trial

On the morning of his 30th birthday, senior bank clerk Josef K. is put under arrest by men who refuse to identify themselves. He's not taken into custody, and nobody will--or even can--tell him the charges against him. Josef refuses to take it seriously, and thus begins his descent into the mad vagaries of a court system that is as enigmatic as it is ominous. This BBC coproduction of the Franz Kafka book features a screenplay by Harold Pinter (Turtle Diary, The French Lieutenant's Woman) that starts out full of wit and menace, but loses steam in the second half and delivers a flat and confusing ending. Kyle MacLachlan is perfectly cast as a sort of yuppie Josef K. who's so self-involved and complacent that he cannot express proper outrage at the injustice. Although he's second-billed, Anthony Hopkins's role as the priest is more of a cameo. Polly Walker and Alfred Molina (a standout as the court painter, Titorelli) both seem to get Kafka's cosmic joke. Beautifully filmed in Prague. --Geof Miller