Runaway Jury Movie Review:


From the eyes of being a current resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is where the new film Runaway Jury is set, the city looks wonderful on the big screen. This is a great film for New Orleans, and the film pays homage to the culture and community of the city.

Runaway Jury is the latest film adaptation from a novel by John Grisham. A lawyer himself, Grisham’s stories are a suspenseful fun read filled with unique characters and courtroom driven elements. This story follows a trial in
New Orleans on the issue of gun control. After the tragic murder of her husband, Celeste Wood (JoAnna Going) is suing a big gun corporation, whose products are what took her husband’s life. In her defense is the ethical attorney Wendall Rohr (Dustin Hoffman).

The gun corporation enlists the cut-throat jury
consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) to help secure a jury that will decide in their favor. Fitch is a man who never loses, and shortly after arriving in
New Orleans, he sets up an abandoned warehouse full of high tech equipment along with a team to cover surveillance on potential jurors. After the jury is selected, juror Nick Easter (John Cusack) becomes the wild card of the jury pool. With the outside help of his partner Marlee (Rachel Weisz), the price of the jury is up for negotiation and Easter can sway it either way. The film then turns into a taut thriller, which has its own share of surprises.

For the most part, Runaway Jury works essentially. Director Gary Fleder has a kin sense of how to keep audiences engaged, which he does in this film. His pacing is balance and precise. There are, however, lackluster decisions made throughout the film. It seems that no one, either Fleder or the film’s
four screenwriters, took the time to learn the details of security issues or sequestering of a jury during a high profile case. Though all of the jury members are a part of this huge-risky trial, there is only one security guard watching over them.

They can walk out of the courthouse as they please, which Cusack’s character does. The jury is finally put up in a hotel and away from all
contact only after one of the jurors’ apartments is burned down. With a courtroom or legal thriller, shouldn’t the aspects of the film be as real as its
gets within a jury? The film also has other ridiculous things in it, such as juror that gets caught sneaking alcohol into court. These aspects might have
been presented to bring more humor to the film, but the unrealistic notion is just too much.

In the novel, the setting is in Biloxi, Mississippi, in which New Orleans is an applicable substitute setting. Also in the novel, the trial is centered around tobacco, in which so many recent films like The Insider (1999) have tackled this subject, that the producers decided to change the centrality of
the trail to gun control. This choice actually works better in the film, than the tobacco premise did in the book. However, the cleverness of the story is
the manipulation of a jury to win a case. There is no other way to sum up the story of this film, than what the slogan states on the film’s poster, "Trials
are too important to be decided by juries." The characters from Grisham’s novel are well adapted with the shallowest being lawyer Wendall Rohr, who had a smaller role in the novel, but was expanded in the film due to the casting of Dustin Hoffman.

Outside of seeing this film to glare at New Orleans (if you are a local resident), there is one scene between Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman that is
worth the price of admission. Being two legends and best friends, this is the first time these two actors have ever graced the screen together. The only scene in the film between the two takes place in the courtroom restroom and it is outstanding. It is such a treat to watch these two great actors work off each other like they are in an intense chess match with another. Each of their characters are at different ends of the spectrum, with Hackman never taking "no" as an answer and Hoffman being the "To Kill a Mockingbird" type of lawyer. Additionally, John Cusack holds his own as well as the pivotal jury member Nick Easter, as does the beautiful Rachel Weisz, who plays the outside manipulator for Rohr and Fitch.

As mentioned before, this is a more than average courtroom thriller that is a great film for New Orleans. Being a resident of the city, it is a
personal joy to see the city relish the screen as well as it does. Also, I have never seen Café Du Monde (coffee shop where Weisz’s character encounters Hoffman’s character) so powder-free clean. This is a proficient Grisham adaptation,
probably one of the best Grisham films outside of A Time to Kill (1996). Though pondered with flaky and annoying choices in terms of the jury, it is worth
seeing this film to see the two greats, Hackman and Hoffman, square off.

Grade: B-

10/17/03

Joseph C. Tucker

The latest John Grisham film adaptation is more of the same, frankly: Entertaining and exciting, and yet strangely predictable as well. At the centre is Nick (Cusack), who's chosen as a juror on a high-profile case against a gun manufacturer. The prosecutor (Davison) has hired a slick and sleazy jury expert (Hackman) to help him, while the defence attorney (Hoffman) has a jury consultant (Piven) on the case. As they launch an all-out war for control of the jury, what they don't know is that Nick is actually a plant--a third faction in cahoots with a mysterious woman (Weisz) to throw the trial their way. Unless someone has enough money to change their minds.

It's amazing that filmmakers can figure out a way to make a thin Grisham plot fill a two-hours-plus movie. The film is well enough made to keep our interest, even if it never comes close to delivering on the promise of the material or the cast. Cusack is an engaging central actor, an everyman struggling against the system. We can identify easily with him, although in this case he knows much more that he lets on. Meanwhile, Hoffman and Hackman chew the scenery gleefully--they're the main reason why this film works at all! Hoffman comes out a bit ahead in the competition with a more intriguing character; Hackman seems a little bit bored by it all. And he has a right to be, since the script is diabolically thin! It undercuts any of the plot's intriguing elements with terrible dialog and contrived situations. And most of the characters are mere cardboard cut-outs acting in typical Hollywood ways, right up to the "surprise" twist conclusion. Still, Fleder directs with enough style to keep our attention. It's never boring, even if we never doubt for a second how it will all turn out.

Rich Cline

After an office massacre, which led to the deaths of eleven financial workers two years earlier, lawyer Wendell Rohr (Hoffman) is leading a case again the gun company that manufactured the weapon used in the monstrous act. The company of course doesn’t want to lose the case so they have hired Rankin Fitch (Hackman), the best in the business, as their jury consultant. Believing he can control the verdict if he chooses the right jury, Fitch is brimming with confidence until he receives a phone call from a woman calling herself Marlee (Wiesz) who says she can swing the verdict either way for a price.

John Grisham books about the US legal profession usually transfer well to film and Runaway Jury is no exception.

This isn’t your usual Grisham piece however because the court and the lawyers don’t take centre stage, this time it is the jury and the people who want to manipulate them. This makes for extremely interesting viewing as you find out what goes into a big money, high profile trial and the lengths that people will go to get their desired verdict. While some of the plot is, hopefully, highly unlikely to take place, especially if the lawyers or judge knew about it, this is intriguing stuff that will have you glued to the screen.

As with all Grisham adaptations the cast is first rate and this is filled with big hitters. John Cusack is on a role. The man just can’t turn in a bad performance and this movie is no exception. As the manipulative Nicholas Easter, you never know his true motivations until the final big reveal which is testament to his superb acting ability. His partner in deception, the beautiful and talented Rachel Weisz as Marlee also keeps her loyalties and motivations close to her chest, as you never know what their true incentives are until the final reel.

It’s hard to believe that veterans Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman have never shared the screen before but the old guard show the young whippersnappers how it is done with two electrifying performances. When the two face off the screen almost pulsates with the pure energy of their combined presence. Hackman, no stranger to Grisham adaptations having already starred in The Firm and The Chamber, eases into the role of the chief jury manipulator effortlessly, like he was putting on an old favourite suit. Hoffman, as the idealistic, small time lawyer with a big fish to fry slips into his role with ease, giving another riveting performance. While these might not be the most challenging roles for the two legends of the art, the two bring a class that can’t be matched and increase the credibility of the piece tenfold.

The support is also good. The always dependable Bruce Davison and Bruce McGill give believable performances as defence lawyer Durwood Cable and Judge Harkin. While he may only have a limited role, Cliff Curtis comes into his own in the deliberation scenes and in his confrontations with Cusack. Jeremy Piven also proves he is more than just a comedic actor.

Runaway Jury might be abit far-fetched in parts and a bit preachy about gun control but the twists and turns of the never predictable story will keep you very entertained. For once this is a courtroom drama where the only predictable thing, the verdict, is a minor point with the motivations of the behind the scenes wranglings been the main plot driver. The Hoffman/Hackman confrontation is worth seeing this movie for alone, but with other outstanding performances this is another John Grisham adaptation that grabs you from the off and doesn’t let go until the final big reveal.

Star Rating = * * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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