I'm not a big fan of hers, but even I have to admit how powerful she was in the courtroom scene. EXCEPT, one thing bothers me...
Did it bug anyone else how she kept saying the phrase, "Oh, Sherriff, Goddammit!!"??
It's not that that offended me or anything (quite the contrary) but the way she says it over and over, kind of took away from the scene. Vince Vaughn was so brilliantly subtle.
I've seen this film several times, the line you're referring to, she says it once but I find her performance during the whole sequence absoloutely brilliant. That line didn't bug me at all after what she's gotten Sherriff to do and for what?
Heche is big on improv so it wouldn't surprise me if everything she says during that sequence wasn't scripted.
The tension while she waits for the verdict, and the pain and frustration after is just incredible. The anger as well over the whole situation too.
I wish they hadn't filmed her leaving the court room from behind as I'd love to have seen what was happening on her face.
I think she's so underrated. She also did great work in 'Birth' too.