'Prima Facie' TIFF Review: Erivo's Courtroom Drama — SkimNews
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- "Prima Facie" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival as a Gala Presentation, adapted from Suzie Miller's one-woman play that won Olivier and Tony Awards with Jodie Comer in the original stage production.
- Cynthia Erivo stars as Tessa, a barrister who routinely defends men charged with sexual assault before she is raped by a longtime colleague, Julian (Daniel Ings), after a heavy night of drinking.
- Director Susanna White and screenwriter Miller replaced the one-woman stage format with extensive voiceover from Tessa's inner thoughts, a choice the Deadline reviewer says doesn't reproduce the 'visceral impact' of the original production.
- Simon Russell Beale plays defense attorney Hugh Dalton KC, who argues the encounter was consensual and accuses Tessa of filing charges so she could transfer to another jurisdiction.
- The film deliberately portrays Julian as a sympathetic colleague who made a 'very bad call' rather than a predatory villain, with the reviewer noting the 'shades of gray' approach recalls Witness for the Prosecution but lands less powerfully.
- The film runs 1 hour 46 minutes and is produced by Greer Simpkin, Kevin Loader, and David Jowsey, with supporting cast including Toheeb Jimoh, Noma Dumezweni, Elliot Levy, and Khalid Abdalla.
Why it matters: The film deliberately reframes a rape case in 'shades of gray,' portraying the accused as a well-liked colleague who misread consent after drinking rather than a predator — a stance grounded in Miller's own legal background and the play's documented influence on legal-reform debates, even as this reviewer argues the film adaptation dilutes the original's confrontational power.
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