A CIVIL ACTION

Jonathan Harr's bestseller is a difficult book to adapt because it's not a hero-conquers-all story. The main character is a flawed hero--John Travolta plays real-life lawyer Jan Schlictmann with fiery intensity and a stubborn arrogance. A Civil Action is a difficult movie to like precisely because we must watch his disintegration. But the film rewards your patience. It takes the standard legal thriller and in it finds something more substantial: a human drama defined by gray rather than black and white.