Deficient adaptation of the John Grisham novel about an eager young urban lawyer who takes over the death-row appeal of his Klansman granddad, convicted of bombing the offices of a Jewish attorney and killing his two sons. (The bomb, we are told, was "timed to kill," just to remind us that this was the same novelist of A Time to Kill.) It takes the hero a long while, and a lot of words, words, words, to turn up a possible accomplice in the crime. Even then the suspense remains minimal. And when the clock begins to tick down the minutes until execution, the suspense becomes tedium. Chris O'Donnell, who went up against the steamrolling Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, is nearly as overmatched here against the cagy Gene Hackman. With Faye Dunaway, Lela Rochon; directed by James Foley. (1996) — Duncan Shepherd