Trial by Fire... forces Willingham through a kind of poetic transformation.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 10, 2020

Powerful stuff, but unpowerfully told, in part because the energies in "Trial by Fire" are split between proving Todd Willingham's innocence and building an argument against the death penalty no matter what the verdict.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 24, 2019

The movie is painstakingly well made and murderously hard to sit through.

| May 20, 2019

There's that masterpiece of a micro-performance by Jeff Perry, in that single scene. That alone is worth the price of admission.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 17, 2019

O'Connell and Dern, meanwhile, find the common ground in their characters that keeps "Trial by Fire" simmering.

| Original Score: B | May 17, 2019

The film plods at points, trudging along, and there are a few misguided narrative 'devices' tacked on.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 17, 2019

Trial by Fire loses its way by failing to trust the power of its compelling facts to convince you on their own.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 16, 2019

[I]t's hard not to feel that even at a little over two hours, there's a rushed, assembly-line quality to how "Trial by Fire" wants to work our emotions.

| May 16, 2019

It's a haunting, heartbreaking story, told by a movie that never quite makes a case for itself to exist.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 16, 2019

The movie's raw facts are sufficient to rouse viewer indignation. But the material arguably calls for a more proactively provocative approach.

| May 16, 2019

Certain aspects of the story... are addressed so superficially that it would have been more efficient just to show them being crossed off of a checklist.

| Original Score: C | May 15, 2019

"Trial by Fire" is at its best when attacking the prosecution's bad science. Unfortunately, the film would rather try, and fail, to tug on the audience's heartstrings

| Original Score: C- | May 15, 2019

Wisely, Zwick front-loads the film with its most pronounced asset: O'Connell. That strategy succeeds at partially dissuading attention from its other, much less praiseworthy features, namely hackneyed lines invoking run-of-the-mill melodrama.

| May 14, 2019

"Trial by Fire" never really stirs up much outrage or sadness, although it tries. It's a good story, not a great one, that generates fire, but no heat.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 14, 2019

O'Connell, no stranger to playing spiky, brutish characters, eases into the role, equally adept at portraying the rough and the smooth, and he helps add grit to what can often be staid film-making.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 14, 2019

Even though "Trial by Fire" is less than a masterpiece, it still came as a gut punch that forced me to examine my own complicated feelings on the issue. In short, it taught me something, and that was a surprise.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 14, 2019

"Trial by Fire" is not a feel-good movie. It's a feel-bad movie. Yet somehow, if you go in expecting that, you might enjoy it in a weird way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 13, 2019

Ed Zwick uses a popular artistic to stake out a moral and political stance that, if not radical, is at least forceful.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 13, 2019

Without flair or fresh insights into its chosen subject, this just seems like spinning more wheels about on oft-discussed subject.

| Sep 4, 2018

What Zwick lacks in artistry, he makes up for in anger, and Trial by Fire burns with a righteous fury that spreads right off the screen.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 4, 2018