From Amazon Prime:
An award winning author of stories of real crimes returns to his hometown where he becomes involved in a 40 year old case of a murdered teenager.
From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 49 minute complete film.
In 22 years film making has changed a great deal. You know you are watching older film techniques when the tool available to distinguish between the film’s present and past is a change in the hue of the picture. Another clue is that David Strathairn (who plays the author Jackson Kinley) was a young 49 years of age (and is now 78 years old). Mary McDonnell (who plays Dora Overton) played Ruby Goldfarb in Fargo.
Because his friend Ray dies, Kinley goes back to his home town, driven by a capital punishment case that never felt correct. Little by little his dogged persistence finally discovers the truth. Along the way he brushes up against an elaborate town wide cover-up and riles up alot of the townsfolk. Also he falls in love with Dora.
Note that Jackson does his work “by hand” so to speak. He doesn’t have modern tools such as DNA forensics. Dora doesn’t even have a telephone. All stored data is on paper. Was 1998 really that long ago?
Watching a vintage film in which Jackson slowly assembles the puzzle pieces is not a waste of time. And there is no violence.