Dir. Gary Fleder, 2003, USA, 127 mins
Cast: John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Pi ven, Leland Orser
While John Grisham has a hugely successful career as an author, film adaptations of his work have generally been found wanting. The Firm and A Time To Kill are perhaps the pick of the bunch, but even these money spinners have failed to capture the imagination in the same way that Grisham's written word has.
A complex, often confusing plot sees a high profile legal case made against irresponsible gun manufacturing companies. When professional trial fixer Rankin Fitch (Hackman) attempts to buy a verdict by manipulating the jury, he finds himself up against decent and upright lawyer Rohr (Hoffman). However when he finds out that Nick Easter (Cusak), a member of the jury, is attempting to do exactly the same thing a frantic battle of wits ensues.
The film hits the ground running and piles on plenty of twists and turns that keep the audience playing catch up. It is to the director Fleder's credit that the plot never becomes too muddled and remains reasonably focussed throughout. The film never buckles under the strain of the plot although it comes rather close on numerous occasions.
There are certain elements of the film that require a fairly high suspension of disbelief. The fact that the trial isn't abandoned in the light of all the disruption is glossed over and it would be nice to think that the central conceit that a verdict can be bought has no foundation in reality. As Hackman's character says 'Trials are too important to be decided by juries.'
This however is a film where reality is stretched and the viewer is required to let certain plot points pass without too much fuss.
Although Cusak heads the cast he really only just holds his own in comparison to Hoffman and Hackman. While this is hardly his fault it is the two senior actors who truly command our attention. Similarly Rachel Weisz delivers a good performance but ultimately ends up having to deliver most of her lines into a mobile phone !
Hoffman delivers a warm performance, often edging towards mawkish sentiment but always managing to restrain himself from going over the top. Hackman, a veteran of two Grisham movies, rises to Hoffman's challenge and a confrontation between the two marks a high point of the film. Part of the film's real strength is that strong performers play supporting parts.
One of the film's key actors is Leland Orser, a familiar face from films such as Seven and Alien Resurrection who is often relegated to screaming victim roles. Here he gets the chance to play the director of operations of Hackman's whole enterprise and manages to fill a relatively small role very effectively. This is typical of the whole venture and something to be roundly applauded. The jurors are certainly not played as mindless ciphers ready to be bought, but are fleshed out and believable people.
Avoiding the kind of ill placed emotion that often sneaks into films with a worthy sentiment, Runaway Jury is not by any means a perfect film. The pay - off doesn't quite work as well as it should in the rush to the end of the film and Weisz's character is a little too thinly sketched.
On the face of it Runaway Jury is not altogether different from other legal thrillers but it is packed with plenty of smart twists and an intelligent, appealing narrative that avoids cliché and doesn't underestimate its audience. In fact based on the case evidence, this is certainly the finest Grisham adaptation yet and proof that Hollywood can, once in a while, produce thought provoking yet utterly entertaining cinema.
Jonathan Wilkins
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