Salocin

Runaway Jury

Nicholas Easter has been called for jury duty, and as he prepares for the selection process, Rankin Fitch, a famous and ruthless jury consultant, is retained to ensure that the jurors that are selected deliver the verdict his high-paying gun lobby clients desire. At first sight, Nick Easter does not want to be a juror, he has better things to do, but as the stakes get higher, and Fitch's methods to guarantee his verdict become more and more ruthless, Nick Easter's own presence on the jury appears less and less like a coincidence.

John Cusack is one of my favourite actors, and he delivers a solid performance as the juror with a hidden agenda. But to be fair, he is not the heavyweight in this piece.

In recent movies, we've seen scripts for kids (Spy Kids II, Charlie's Angels II) where a young group of actors are the key, and an older actor appears to be making a desperate bid to revive their career. Here we have a much more intelligent approach: a young-looking John Cusack and a gorgeous Rachel Weisz are ideal for their roles, but the heavyweight actors on the screen are given characters that allow them to flex the huge skill and experience they have at their disposal. Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman rock, and as the antagonist and protagonist of the piece, they manage to present a true clash of ideals versus a ruthless desire to win.

This movie combines well-crafted twists and turns with solid performances, and characters with agendas that are not always clear. It provides a moral lesson only insofar as it is against the gun lobby and it pitcures it as a cheating, manipulative, at-any-cost entity that smacks of organized crime. While it doesn't quite keep you guessing until the end, the movie certainly engages sufficiently to make good viewing, and now that it's out on DVD, you have no excuse.