As rival attorneys in New York City, Robert Redford and Debra Winger aren't exactly Tracy and Hepburn (he's too wishy-washy and callow, she's too flighty),but they do get to loosen up a bit from prior roles, creating an amusing give-and-take relationship while defending performance artist Daryl Hannah on murder charges. Plot is so haphazardly constructed that it was re-worked for the TV version and still nobody could figure it out. Redford and Winger get out of a bomb-laden warehouse just in the nick of time, but how they do it will have smart viewers crying foul. There are other problems, not to mention a strange, off-putting show put on by Hannah where she appears to go up in flames, but the charisma of the players is just enough to carry this heavy vehicle to a happy conclusion. The outtakes at the finale are charming, as is Rod Stewart's song "Love Touch". **1/2 from ****

Tom Logan (Robert Redford) is on the inside track to be the new District Attorney of New York. He shares custody of his daughter Jennifer. Tough talking defense attorney Laura Kelly (Debra Winger) has a new client in mysterious ingenue Chelsea Deardon (Daryl Hannah) who stole a painting from wealthy Robert Forrester (John McMartin). Her artist father made the painting for her 8th birthday 18 years ago. Most of the paintings were lost in a fire that night along with her father. Forrester suddenly drops his complaint and trades the painting for a Picasso with museum owner Victor Taft (Terence Stamp) in a lopsided trade. The case seems to be closed. Police detective Cavanaugh (Brian Dennehy) gives Laura evidence about the old fire which indicates a conspiracy of fraud and possibly worst.

Daryl Hannah is pretty good. She should be the femme fatale in a noir thriller. Ivan Reitman insists on trying to inject comedy into this and it mostly doesn't work. Neither Redford nor Winger is a comedian. There are no comedians in sight. The poppy music gives it a light tone but it doesn't make it funny. He also has Redford sleep with Hannah. The romantic pairing with Winger gets cold water dumped on it. Despite it all, these are great actors and they deliver compelling characters. Reitman is probably the wrong man to direct this.

I really do love Legal Eagles, it's a film that hearkens back to the stuff that William Powell and Myrna Loy did at MGM. I can see a younger Tracy and Hepburn in this film as well.

Robert Redford is the Jack McCoy of the New York County District Attorney's office and wouldn't you know it, Steven Hill plays the New York County DA here. Hill's thinking of hanging it up, but obviously as fans of Law and Order know, he eventually didn't. He's thinking of promoting Redford as his candidate to succeed him come the next election.

But for budding politico Redford, his life gets real complicated when defense attorney Debra Winger and her client Darryl Hannah enter his life. Hannah is the daughter of a famed artist who was killed in a loft fire where she barely escaped from when she was about 6. Since then she's become something of a wild child.

Hannah steals a picture from art dealer Terrence Stamp that she says is really hers. That starts a chain of events in which she's eventually accused of Stamp's murder. That same night Hannah decides she needs a little tender loving care and who better than the assistant district attorney to give it. The police bust her when she and Redford are in flagrato.

After that Redford decides to see how the other half lives working with Debra Winger on Hannah's defense.

What I liked about Legal Eagles is that it glided nicely from comedy to drama with little effort. The climax at Terrence Stamp's gallery was very well staged and Redford is being a most heroic lawyer.

Also in the cast are Roscoe Lee Browne as the judge at Hannah's trial and Brian Dennehy as a most interesting investigator. It's one of Robert Redford's best films and it's got style and substance.

With Redford, style is a given.