John Grisham's jury-rigging novel Runaway Jury has become a taut thriller in the hands of director Gary Fleder.
Fleder keeps the jolts coming, even when we know early on that one of the jurors has a big-money stake in the outcome of a trial against an irresponsible gun manufacturer. Besides giving us some breathtaking moments, Runaway Jury poses uncomfortable questions about the impartiality of juries in the face of professional jury fixers who dig into the backgrounds of potential jurors, trying to gauge which ones will likely provide the most favorable decision for their clients.
Gene Hackman plays the slick, huckstering Rankin Fitch (even his name sounds sinister). He employs an army of behind-the-scenes detectives and electronics eavesdroppers to weed out potential jurors who might render a verdict unfavorable to his clients and to uncover hidden secrets that can be used to sway the ones who are selected.
Unsavory? Definitely.
Illegal? Perhaps.
Are there really jury fixers who use James Bond-like gadgets and illegal methods -- such as breaking into houses or using cameras hidden in briefcases in the courtroom -- to get what they want? Who knows?
At any rate, it creates a fascinating, slightly seedy and certainly bumpy ride that makes Runaway Jury's payoff ending very sweet. While Fitch's camera scans the jurors in court, he and his technicians are running down the goods on these people from an electronics wonderland control room hidden in a warehouse. He's like a TV director, calling the shots to the defense attorney in court, on whom to accept or reject.
Fitch is pitted against Dustin Hoffman as easygoing Big Easy attorney Wendall Rohr, an upright man who says he prefers to use his instincts when selecting a jury. Rohr is pleading the case for a woman whose husband was slain by a gun-wielding madman at a New Orleans brokerage. (Fleder stages that event as Runaway Jury's terrifying opening sequence using rapid-fire editing.) However, in the face of the big-money jury fixers, who are prepared to pay big bucks to make sure the case goes their way, even Rohr's stalwart idealism is compromised.
Worse for both of these juggernauts is the uncomfortable realization that they aren't the only ones who have a deep financial interest in the case's outcome. It's not just civic-mindedness that has spurred Nicholas Easter (John Cusack) to be chosen as Juror Number 9, even though at first he pretends to want to be anywhere else. Easter, if that's his real name, keeps a wall filled with photos of the other jurors, just like Fitch and Rohr. And Easter is not working alone.
His pretty girlfriend, who calls herself Marlee (Rachel Weisz), is behind the scenes, making mysterious phone calls to both sides, seeing which one will pay $10 million to have the jury pushed their way.
Hackman and Hoffman, who once were roommates in New York when they were just starting out, have only one confrontational scene together. It's set in a men's room and it creates sparks. In fact, one waits for this scene to arrive, it's so inevitable. Democracy's idealism butts heads with amoral sleaziness in the scene and the audience gets to decide in the end who's in the right. "Trials are too important to be left up to juries," sneers Fitch, who is contemptible of the People that Rohr holds in such high esteem.
Surprisingly, however, it's not the film's biggest payoff moment. That honor goes to the top-billed Cusack, upon whose character Runaway Jury really hinges. Cusack plays his cards close to the vest. He has a blank, innocent face. Anything might be going on behind it, which makes Cusack so perfect for unfolding this mystery man's mysterious plans. Fleder and the four writers credited with adapting Grisham's book keep us guessing what he's up to until almost the end. Is Cusack's Nick the good guy who greases the wheels for the other jurors and wins their confidence? Is he the bad guy? Or is he just a money-grubbing pragmatist?
Adding to the film's unnerving quality is Nick Searcy as Doyle, Fitch's thug who does all the dirty work. In Runaway Jury's most heartpounding sequence Easter discovers Doyle raiding his apartment, which leads to a thrilling chase that boosts the film's momentum and adds to its mystery. It's the breathless moments that keep you hanging on real tight.
****
Runaway Jury
Starring: John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Bruce Davison, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Piven, Nick Searcy.
Rated: PG-13, contains violence, profanity.
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