I think I actually saw the film before I read the book, but I remembered so little about it that it could not have affected my view of the book much at all. Anyway, the film, The Runaway Jury, based on the equally titled book by John Grisham, came on television recently. I must be getting too keen as I actually decided to watch it just so that I could write this review! I have to admit reading the book has influenced my opinion on this film and therefore somewhat had an impact on my review. Perhaps I liked the film better before I knew how good the novel was.

Story

There are some differences between the book and the film. The book is about cigarette manufacturers being sued for their part in the death of a smoker, whereas the film is about gun manufacturers, being sued for their part the death of a victim of a shooting. I can imagine this has a lot to do with the need for more action on a screen than you would require from just reading a novel, but it does mean that although the story is translated well, some parts have had to be added, altered or omitted for everything to make sense. At the start of the film I wondered for a moment if I even had the right channel!

So basically Jacob Wood was among a number of people shot dead at work one day. The wife has sued the manufacturers, holding them partially responsible for his death by making available the weapons used by the killer. Nicholas Easter is one of the 12 selected jury members, but he and another girl on the outside, who calls herself "Marlee" seem to be taking control of the jury and planning to sell a verdict to whichever side is willing to pay. They are treading on dangerous grounds, and big money is at stake, but is there more to why they are doing this and will they get the deal that they want? More importantly, who will get the verdict they want and will it be the right one?

Unlike the novel, the story does shuffle through the selection process quite quickly, and instead focuses on events during the trial. This is favourable in terms of not tiring the audience early, but in addition to this, the film seems in a hurry to tell all as quickly as possible, and this just kills the suspense that we had in the book. The film mostly tells the story from the perspective of Nicholas Easter and Marlee, and this means that a lot of the mystery about them is also out in the open far too early. It becomes too easy to work out what is coming, and so after this you are just waiting for it to happen.

Acting/Characters

I'm not too familiar with John Cusack, although I have seen a few films with him in, and I can't say he stands out as a particularly good actor to me. Somehow for me he fitted the role of Nicholas Easter well, but that may be because I saw the film before I read the book. Unfortunately, Easter is a pretty mediocre person to begin with, and in the film, he doesn't develop too dramatically, leaving little opportunity for Cusack to add to the role, although he occasionally shows some passionate sides to him. This was not so much of a problem in the novel, because all the other characters, e.g. jury members in particular, had interesting backgrounds of their own and there was more about their own lives, whereas in the film, they barely got the opportunity to be identified individually. I think the only ones that got much notice were Lonnie Shaver and Ricky Coleman, the rest were just background characters.

Rachel Weisz is an actress that I do quite like, because she's not weak or flimsy but she's also capable of creating some very moving scenes. She is best known for her parts in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, but has been in quite a mix of films. She was quite an effective character here, not giving away too much until the right moment. The character, however, was slightly different to how I'd imagined in the book, probably to be more realistic and also to keep viewers on the edges of their seats.

Dustin Hoffman, although a good actor, did not come across quite as I had hoped in this film. In the book, his character is quite a character, and a little eccentric, whereas here he just comes across as very ordinary. As Fitch, Gene Hackman also disappointed me a little as I had Fitch pictured as a bit of a tyrant, but with more depth. Although he shows a few temper tantrums, I just didn't find him effective at getting that fierce side across. There was more of an emphasis on physical threats, whereas my idea of Fitch was that it was about how he looked at people and spoke to them that made them fear something, rather than just going ahead and slamming or punching stuff.

Film qualities

To be honest the effects in the film are nothing special, but convincing enough, nonetheless. There is a little bit of action/violence, but you really don't see much and most is left to imagination instead. Admittedly, the first time I watched this, before I'd read the book, I was expecting more action, but actually it would have made sense not to go down this road and detract the audience from the very essence of the film - if I had felt the story had been shaped to reflect this properly. Since instead the focus was more on a game of cat and mouse, with only subtle hints at meanings and messages behind the story, it would have been better to at least make it more exciting.

To be honest I don't have much recollection of the soundtrack at all, so it really must have been on of those background ones. It is probably enough to say that it had no impact on my opinion of this film.

Classification

Although there is some violence in this film, little injury is actually shown and also given that the film is also showing us the effects of gun crime directly, it can't really be condoning violence. The Runaway Jury has been rated 15, and I’m not sure why it didn’t make a 12 (I thought it was a 12 until I looked it up) although I doubt most teenagers or younger would be interested in this sort of film anyway. It really is aimed at a slightly older audience. There were no sexual scenes and I don't actually remember much swearing, so at least the film is not offensive!

Conclusion

The second time I watched this film was really only so that I could write this review, and to be honest, the first time was virtually unmemorable. Even now I'm finding that my memory of the details of this film has gone vague. Frankly, I found it a little too tiresome to watch, and in even if the acting wasn't too bad, it just did not appeal. In terms of matching the book, I felt it left out, or brushed over some of the things that stood out as important to me when I read the novel, so that was another potential advantage dropped. The court room scenes are brief and hard to follow, because you are trying to see what else is going on. This could either have been more dramatic or more educational, but given that I felt neither was achieved, I was very disappointed.

So, neither particularly entertaining nor particularly educational, I failed to see the value in this film. For that reason, I'm not going to recommend it at all, although I'm sure it is not a film people will hate, it just isn't worth watching, and certainly not worth buying.