How far would you go to protect your child? If he was involved in a crime, would you cover for him - even go so far as to destroy evidence and lie to the police?
That's the burning question at the heart of "Before and After," based on the best-seller by Rosellen Brown. But after a promising start, the film sinks into platitudes and melodrama, losing its momentum and failing to fully explore its own central premise.
The story is told from the viewpoint of a successful, middle-aged couple, pediatrician Carolyn Ryan and her husband Ben, an avant-garde sculptor (Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson), who have settled in a small Massachusetts town.
The film begins with a bang as the body of a local teenage girl is found in the snow on the outskirts of town. She was last seen with the Ryans' son, Jacob (Edward Furlong), who appears to be on the run.
Carolyn is sure her son is innocent, but Ben obviously thinks he's guilty. They never say so specifically, but their actions reveal their true feelings. While Carolyn wants to cooperate with the local sheriff, Ben demands a search warrant. And when the sheriff leaves to obtain the warrant, Ben goes straight to the garage to search Jacob's car, finds what he believes to be incriminating evidence and destroys it.
Eventually, Jacob is arrested on the opposite coast, brought back to New England and, being a minor, is released to his parents' custody. After a tense reunion and Jacob's near catatonic silence for several days, the boy finally tells his side of the story, and his parents employ a flamboyant defense attorney (Alfred Molina).
As compelling as this may sound in descriptive form, somewhere around the halfway point "Before and After" begins to falter. The dialogue becomes more and more stilted and artificial - especially when Jacob and his younger sister are speaking - and even an emotionally effective confrontation late in the film, as Carolyn bumps into the mother of the victim, feels contrived.
The performances are also uneven. Streep is best, as a devoted mother torn between loyalties. Should she continue to sublimate her instincts, her belief that the truth will free her son, or should she continue to follow her husband's rash reactions and perpetuate a lie?
Neeson, however, is less effective, playing his character as a hot-head who is always over the top - a condition that also seems to have infected Molina. Furlong, on the other hand, is so understated that he seems to belong in some other movie.
But the real crime here is that the subject matter is so superficially dealt with. Writer Ted Tally ("The Silence of the Lambs," "The Juror") and director/co-producer Barbet Schroeder ("Reversal of Fortune," "Single White Female") lose their focus for the film's second half, as the drama begins flattens out, leaving the audience less than satisfied.
The film is also loaded with anti-religous overtones, especially when Neeson's character makes a cheap joke about Old Testament prophet Abraham.
"Before and After" is rated PG-13, but it seems to be in R-rated territory, with violence, gore (repeated shots of the victim's body), sex, partial nudity (a photo of the victim) and profanity.