We are well past the halfway point of Edward Zwick’s conventional but effective Death Row legal thriller “Trial by Fire” when the efforts to exonerate a man facing execution take us to the home of one Gerald Hurst, a world-renowned chemist and fire investigator.
The Highland Park-born Jeff Perry, a Steppenwolf Theatre Company legend and a familiar character actor on TV (“Nash Bridges,” “Scandal”) and in the movies (“The Grifters,” “The Human Stain”), delivers unique and offbeat and absolutely brilliant work as the eccentric genius Hurst. I can’t remember the last time I was so blown away by a performance that takes up maybe five minutes of screen time.