Intelligence, heart, excellent camera-work, fine direction, superlative acting ... Recommended

Rating: 9/10 (13 November 2009)

For some reason I had not heard of this film before I sat down to watch it with my fiancée last night. I'm ashamed to admit that I can sometimes be reluctant to sit down on a weeknight and watch a wordy, black-and-white film; when my fiancée explained to me that the entire movie is set in one room I sighed and settled myself in for the long haul.
Luckily what I watched was a brilliantly made, flawlessly acted masterpiece of tension that would not let me drift from the screen for even a single second. I have honestly not seen such an ensemble of brilliant actors working together like that for a long long time, if ever. This is a superb film and one that has left me thinking deeply about it, and looking forward to seeing it again.
If there is one gripe it would be that some of the points raised by Henry Fonda as the original dissenting voice among the jurors, would surely have been made by even a bad defence lawyer (finding out whether the only eyewitness to the murder wore glasses, for example); but the point here is not the innocence or guilt of the boy, but the motives of the men in reaching their opinions on his guilt.
"Twelve Angry Men" is a brilliant set of character studies and one of the finest films I have ever seen. Such a refreshing way to spend an hour-and-a-half in an age when we are constantly bombarded with big-budget, empty-headed blockbusters. Highly recommended.