Shu Kai Kim has been living a nightmare for the past eight years.

The Sing Sing Correctional Facility takes its toll on a man, especially if he's in there for a crime he may not have committed.

True Believer, a film directed by Joseph Ruben (The Stepfather), tells Shu's story, one that includes being prosecuted for the shooting of a man in the streets of Chinatown in 1979 and the recent stabbing of a fellow inmate in a gang fight.

Eddie Dodd (James Woods), an intelligent and eloquent defense attorney, is asked to defend Shu (Yuji Okumoto), after the jail killing. Dodd is a liberal leftover from the sixties, who in recent years has become specialized in getting drug offenders off the hook.

Dodd takes the case only after his young rabble-rousing associate Roger Baron (Robert Downey, Jr.) persuades him to. Baron is a fan of the lawyer Dodd used to be, one who would take on the court's neediest cases.

After they visit Shu in prison, Dodd becomes convinced that helping him is the right thing to do. "The guiltier he is, the more he needs us...He's been in prison too goddam long," Dodd tells his partner, deciding to try to reopen the Chinatown case. He knows that if he can prove him innocent, the later charges would be dropped too. Baron smiles; the old Dodd is back.

The two are faced with the trouble of finding evidence to bring to court. Research digs up an old witness, Cecil Skell (Tom Bower), who claimed that Shu was innocent. The catch is that Skell is a patient in a mental hospital who swears that the phone company conspired to kill John F. Kennedy.

Despite the assistant D.A.'s attempts to prove Skell as incompetent to answer questions, the judge is convinced that his testimony is pertinent and opens the case again.

Robert Reynard (Kurtwood Smith), Manhattan's D.A., tries to save his office the trouble of going to trial and offers his opposition an out-of-court bargain of serving only five more years. Dodd refuses and is relieved to find out Shu agrees with his decision.

From the moment of his refusal of the deal on, the movie leads the viewer down a path of action, intrigue, and danger. The plot is well-paced, including well-thought-out details, witty dialogue, and a few surprises.

A high point of the film is the performance given by Woods. Dodd emerges as a very likeable hero, not because he is Superman, but a human being with both good and bad points. Some of this credit must be given to the script, which was written by Wesley Strick, but the majority of it goes to Woods's interpretation of the role. He is able to switch from dramatic to comedic tones at the drop of a hat, and he is highly successful in creating a well-rounded characterization of the maverick lawyer.

An added bonus is the supporting cast. Downey, Jr. balances Woods's role wonderfully. Downey plays unselfishly to his partner's dominant character, and the result is a chemistry that is rare in male buddy films. The scenes with comic exchange between the attorney and his pupil are the most enjoyable ones in the film.

Margaret Colin, as Dodd's researcher and confidante Kitty Greer, also complements Woods. Smith puts on a great show as Reynard, the D.A. who viewers find very easy to hate.

Even though Dodd is a multi-dimensional character, the way his past is revealed is disappointing. Instead of developing this aspect through action or dialogue, the film takes a wimpy way out, by showing newspaper clippings of old cases and various signs, like "No Nukes" and "Buy Union", hanging in his office.

However, aside from this, the film is well-directed. An outstanding sequence is the opening scene, which turns out to be the dream sequence of Shu. It is filmed in black and white, and the contrasts in light within the frame are breathtaking. The eerieness is escalated by the music which contains prevalent chimes.

True Believer combines the basic conflict of the heroic versus the corrupt, likeable characters, and non-stop action into a courtroom drama. The result is a thriller that is a must-see.