RUNAWAY JURY (15)
D: Gary Fleder
20th Century Fox/Regency (Gary Fleder, Christopher Mankiewicz
& Arnon Milchan)
US 2003
127 mins
Drama/Thriller
W: Brian Koppleman, David Levien, Rick Cleveland & Matthew
Chapman [based on the novel by John Grisham]
DP: Robert Elswit
Ed: William Steinkamp & Jeff Williams
Mus: Christopher Young
John Cusack (Nick Easter), Gene Hackman (Rankin Finch), Dustin
Hoffman (Wendall Rohr), Rachel Weisz (Marlee), Jeremy Piven (Lawrence Green), Bruce McGill (Judge Harkin)
Runaway Jury isn't the best work adapted from a John Grisham
novel, but it is still a very entertaining watch, complete with a very impressive ensemble cast.
Following a workplace shooting at a New Orleans brokerage
firm, the widow of a victim, along with her attorney, Wendall Rohr (Hoffman) commence a trial against the weapons manufacturer that made its guns so readily available. On the opposite side of the
courtroom, legal whiz Rankin Finch has manipulatively assembled a jury sympathetic to the defendant's case, unaware that the verdict is held to ransom by one of the jurors and his girlfriend
working on the outside.
Though this thriller seems like there's no real good guy,
everything becomes clarified as it unfolds, setting up an ending where everyone gets what they deserve.
The plot has some shades of 12 Angry Men, though inspired a
little more by the Columbine tragedy.
Gene Hackman called time on his acting career shortly
following the films release, and it certainly isn't a bad performance for his excellent career to end on.
6/10