An Act of Murder Reviews

A by-the-book judge, March, learns that his wife has an incurable disease. When Eldridge, March's real-life spouse, begins to endure incredible pain, he decides that she would be better off dead and he drives off a cliff with his wife at his side. She is killed and March survives, turning himself in to authorities and confessing to murder, demanding punishment for the crime of euthanasia. O'Brien, as his lawyer, brilliantly defends his client, arguing for the justification of March's act. Moreover, it is proved that Eldridge had taken a fatal dose of poison before her fatal ride with her husband and was already dead when hurtling over the cliff. March is freed but he is a changed man, no longer the unbending arbiter of another's fate but someone who has learned to judge as he was judged. Both March and Eldridge turn in superb performances, as does O'Brien, in portraying a sensitive subject.