Dutton Above Average; ‘Deadlocked’ Is Not

When a TV movie barely rises to the level of an average series episode, you have to wonder why anyone bothered to make it.

Such is the case with “Deadlocked,” a courtroom drama on a par with the more mundane episodes of “Law & Order” or “NYPD Blue.” Only the passionate central performance of Charles S. Dutton causes this project, debuting Sunday on cable channel TNT, to register as more than a blip on the radar.

Dutton portrays a former corrections officer who belatedly learns that his estranged 22-year-old son (played by Jo D. Jonz) has been convicted of a brutal murder in Seattle. With the trial in its penalty phase and the hot-shot prosecutor (David Caruso) asking for death, Dutton takes the stand to declare his son innocent and blame the conviction on the fact that he couldn’t “buy a defense . . . in this country where a guilty man with money gets off, and an innocent boy with nothing is sent to hell.”

The line, right down to its faux working-class stiltedness, is the sort of thing that exists only in a TV writer’s mind, but the tears in Dutton’s eyes are touchingly real.

Dutton becomes agitated after the miffed judge orders him to step down. Fearing his boy is about to be condemned to death, Dutton grabs the bailiff’s gun and retreats with his son into the jury room, where several others have taken refuge. With Dutton threatening to shoot hostages if his demands aren’t met, Caruso becomes the go-between and, as ordered by Dutton, begins to reinvestigate the case.

As written by David Rosenfelt and Erik Jendresen (based on Rosenfelt’s story) and directed by Michael Watkins, “Deadlocked” aims to raise meaningful questions about parental responsibility, might versus right and, of course, class divisions in the justice system. Worthy topics all, but deserving of better treatment than they get in this all-too-predictable exercise.

* “Deadlocked” debuts Sunday at 8 p.m., repeating at 10 p.m. and midnight and various times throughout the week, on TNT. The network has rated it TV-14-DSLV (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14, with special advisories for suggestive dialogue, sexual situations, coarse language and violence).