Hey folks, Harry here... RUNAWAY JURY just seems like something that's going to disappoint me. It's a Gary Fleder film, it's a Grisham flick, that cast is too good. It's gotta suck. Or does it? Pyul seemed to like it, but I'm not sure what that means cuz I haven't got a tag on who this guy is yet, but I'm sensing some BS here. Anyone talking about the "heartland" crowd... ewwww....
Hey Harry, My buddy got me into an advanced sneak of Runaway Jury and I thought I might drop you a line on it.
Well, Gary Fleder is at it again. Best known for making star studded films that never quite achieve greatness, the "Oh yeah, I remember that actor being in that movie. Yeah. It was pretty good." films. Or best know around here as the man who spawned a talkbalk legend with the tragic misfire Imposter (which seemingly was later remade by Spielberg and retitled "Minority Report" minus the bomb in the chest.) Personally, I have a love for his work on Things to do in Denver When You're Dead, but I know I'm in the minority on that one.
Well, Fleder's back, this time tackling the John Grisham cash cow machine with Runaway Jury. Material, much like all the other Grisham adaptations, falls into Fleder's resume quite nicely. Movies that never quite achieve greatness. Now don't get me wrong, I actually quite like every Grisham adaptation thus filmed. The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The rainmaker and most notably, A Time to Kill (also notable for being the only title with more than two words in the title.) All of these films are quite entertaining, well paced thrillers with amazing casts. But none of them are required viewing, nor are they absolute staples of the celebrities they starred (and made). And that being said, Runaway Jury easily meets, and at times exceeds, the quality of the previous Grisham adaptations. It is a film many will no doubt enjoy greatly on their first viewing, but will quickly fall to the wayside of memory lane.
Now don't get me wrong, it's a really entertaining film that is paced perfectly, keeps you on the edge of your seat, betrays nothing until you need to know it and I must say, is MAGNIFICENTLY cast. The cast is the real reason to see this. Forget Grisham, forget the fact that this is a tight, well delivered thriller. The casting in this film is a thing of beauty.
Of course there are the principles: the always likeable (even when he's not supposed to be) John "Cute and Fuzzy Bunnies" Cusack, Gene "I don't quite yell as often as Pacino, but I'm trying and oh yeah, shop Home Depot" Hackman, Dustin "I brought 80 pages of notes for my two page character" Hoffman and Rachel "how can you not just want to eat this woman with a spoon" Weisz. All kidding aside, seeing any of these actors in a film is always a treat, and they all have really good track records on the scripts they choose, especially as of late, seeing the four of them in a film together is a good sign right out of the gate. Each one of them is excellent here, delivering textured roles in the sometimes limited screentime they're given.
But what sells this film to me, what really delivers the goods, is the wonderful choices to play all of the incidental characters that surround these four key players. Normally these are the roles given to unknowns, but here Fleder and his casting team fill the rank with seasoned veterans who all step up to the plate and give their all in roles that would normally be easily forgettable.
Bruce Davison (Willard, X-Men) as the Lawyer acting as the extension for Hackman's behind the scenes machinations. He does a wonderful job as a man taking his cues from someone thinking faster, and better, than himself.
One of my long time favorites Bruce McGill (Sum of All Fears, Matchstick Men and the deliverer of the only amusing lines in Legally Blonde 2), and one of the great supporting cast background men of the modern era, gets to show his stuff as Judge Harkin, a tough Judge getting played by almost everybody. Despite my really disliking both Legally Blonde 2 and the last 1/3 of Matchstick Men, seeing Bruce McGill do his thing was a treat, and it's a treat again here.
Jeremy Piven (PCU, Very Bad Things, Old School) gets a bit more time than his character really deserves, but makes the most of it as he always does. What I love about Jeremy Piven is that he can be either equally likable and sleazy, depending on what the role requires, without much noticeable change in his acting. He simply seems to slide into the roles naturally and does his thing. Here he does just that, in the likable slant, sharing most of his screentime with Hoffman, which is never a bad thing.
Then there's Cliff Curtis, a deserving actor finally given a mainstream role that not only gives him something to chew on, but doesn't involve him being a terrorist (Collateral Damage) or a racial stereotype (as he did beautifully in the Majestic as "The Evil but Handsome Prince Khalid"). While small, Curtis's turn as Sgt. Frank Herrera, a somewhat bitter ex-marine, really stuck out, managing to shine through the superb work by the rest of the cast, and even, believe it or not, stealing scenes from Cusack.
Top that off with great, but extremely minor appearances by Jennifer Beals(Flashdance, Four Rooms), Leland Orser (Saving Private Ryan, Alien Resurrection, and oddly enough, Resurrection), Bill Nunn (Spider-Man, Things to do in Denver When You're Dead), Nora Dunn (SNL), Luis Guzman (who improves everything he appears in, excepting sitcoms), and Orlando Jones (The REAL 7-Up guy, not that new imitator), proving that you apparently couldn't throw a stick on this set without hitting someone the average movie goer would recognize.
If this movie has one solid flaw it's that you don't really get to spend much time with all of these great characters we're given such great performances for, but that's tempered by the fact that this film is ruthlessly taut, never boring the audience for a second with a story, that in the wrong hands, WOULD spend too much time with these characters (It's a Catch-22 and the writers and Fleder definitely made the right choice here.) The supporting cast simply provides a cinematic treat for those that enjoy such things and provides a solid base from which to build an excellent thriller.
Personally, this ranks as one of my favorite Grisham films, if not just for the cast, then for the near perfect third act. This comes together as well as any Grisham thriller can and provides solid entertainment for the heartland crowd that will choose not to dine on the cinematic feasts that the coming weeks are providing for the hardcore film lovers (Kill Bill, Intolerable Cruelty, Elephant, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and will provide a nice palate cleaner for those that do. It's nice to see that the summer season of pain is over and at least for the time being, the torment that I've shared in my last few reviews has been abated. Here's hoping the rest of this seasons films are as solid as this.
Pyul Mactackle
