Prima Facie

Prima Facie is the courtroom drama written and adapted by Suzie Miller from her Olivier and Tony award winning play of the same name, it depicts a London criminal defence barrister in her role dealing with the most reprehensible of witnesses, including those to do with sexual assault, only to have the tables turned on her when she reports she has been the victim of a rape herself that puts her on the witness stand. In UK cinemas from 13th November.

Cynthia Erivo plays the legal barrister Tessa Ensler taking on the criminal defence cases exercising her interrogatory skills in the courtroom. She knows she is an outsider to the system because of her racial and socio-economic background, but nonetheless she has made it against the odds amongst the elite and privileged of the profession and is doing it to her own beat.

Showing a highly glamourised lifestyle of London law offices, which are served impeccably by the privileged looking Daniel Ings as the ace lawyer and office lothario Julian Brooks. He strikes up a surprising partnership with Tessa and we watch as their relationship quickly blossoms, before quickly going south on the night in question. This whirlwind office romance precedes the two high flying lawyers ending up on trial themselves as the victim and the accused.

Directed by Susanna White, the film’s portrayal of criminal barristers centres on a couple of significant strands of the profession. The formal ceremonial proceedings of the courts with the wigs and gowns, which are given a prestigious airing and enhanced by the sounds of the courts and most notably the clacking of female high heels, like horses’ hooves, echoing through the most salubrious looking court passageways of the Old Bailey, that give the impression the criminal justice system is one long banquet. Until we get onto the main course where the tables are turned and the game keeper becomes poacher.

The film’s other main interest lies in explaining the law largely through Tessa’s internal monologue workings. With a diaristic air of Bridget Jones, the informative and enlightening insights provide welcome explanation not just for the uninitiated, but they also come across a bit like trying to teach granny how to suck eggs and manage to reduce the law to ostensibly didactic reductionism. Having said that, choosing a non-consensual rape as the case in point is a significantly contentious point of law and the film has some heartfelt info graphic messages amongst its dramatic interpretation that will have audiences both intrigued, bewildered and angry.

Films on sexual assault and rape have great precedents such as An Anatomy of a Scandal starring James Stewart and like that film this has its own spin on panties with the thread being how consensual sex can quickly become non-consensual and a serious criminal offence, which is the defining vicissitude of this case.

It is a bold aim to bring some theatrical brevity to serious criminal proceedings. On this occasion the film’s attempt to broaden its appeal from the play’s original monologue may have left the film festival juries with no case to answer, but obiter dicta, the scales of justice may need further adjusting.