Cruz, an otherwise excellent dramatic actor, is given a meaty role, that of a Forrest Gump-like young man. Suffice it to say that things crawl quite slowly, even as Ronald finds himself charged with rape because of a cellular-phone sex scandal (featuring him and Bessie). Estranged husband Julian Bien (Gómez), a lawyer, also reluctantly accepts the case of defending Ronald. Reluctantly at first, psychologist Amanda Bien (Barretto) studies the case, including our mentally slow hero, but her motivations are all too obvious when we quickly find out her son Martin (Enrique Gil) has just passed away and she's still deep in mourning. I don't think I'm spoiling anything major by stating the premise: "developmentally-challenged" (Gretchen's character uses this quantification) gardener Ronald Jimenez (Cruz) finds himself unwittingly at the center of an odd rape case, by his friend and perceived sweetheart, Bessie Buenaventura (Jessy Mendiola), a young schoolteacher so behind in her lesson plans (go figure). In the first place, the courtroom scenes take place in the, as they use in basketball parlance, "last ten minutes " secondly, John Lloyd's character AND characterization are both hard to, well, understand, like, or root for. THE TRIAL, directed by Chito Roño and top-billed by John Lloyd Cruz, Richard Gómez and Gretchen Barretto, is glossy schmaltz disguised as an out-of-the-box courtroom thriller (as intimated by the title itself).
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