There's a rule in public speaking that goes something like this: always know your landing strip before you start. In other words, rather than circling and circling and circling, you have to know how to bring something to an end. Among others, Martin Luther King, Jr. lived by that principle in his preaching and speaking. "The Juror" could have learned that lesson, and it would have made for a far more satisfying movie.
Basically the cast was all right. In fact, Alec Baldwin was quite good as the rather charming psychotic known as the "Teacher." He had an air of both friendliness and ominousness to him. It's not easy to bring both of those qualities to a character, and he did it well. Demi Moore (who isn't my favourite actress) was fine as sculptor Annie Laird, and James Gandolfini carried his weight as Eddie, a sympathetic member of a local mob family. Ann Heche was superfluous as Annie's friend Juliet.
The story revolves around Annie being selected for jury duty in a murder trial involving the head of the mob family, Louis Boffano (Tony Lo Bianco.) Desperate to get Boffano acquitted, Eddie and the Teacher are sent to threaten Annie, telling her that unless she successfully argues for an acquittal in the case, her son Oliver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) will be killed. Given the nature of the story, I was expecting more jury room intrigue, as Annie desperately tried to get Boffano off to save her son. Instead, as far as I was concerned, the movie got way off track and ended up adding way too much to the story. The trial ends just a little over halfway through, and the last 45 minutes or so was much too much, and began to approach the level of being just plain silly. The mobsters turn on each other, the DA turns on Annie and then offers to protect her, and Annie becomes a gun-toting heroine in Guatemala of all places! Had the movie stuck more closely to the courtroom drama, and Annie's personal dilemma as she desperately tried to get Boffano acquitted even while knowing that he's guilty, this probably would have been both tighter and shorter, as well as better focused. As it was, seemed to me to be a bit of a jumble that tried too hard. (3/10)
Basically the cast was all right. In fact, Alec Baldwin was quite good as the rather charming psychotic known as the "Teacher." He had an air of both friendliness and ominousness to him. It's not easy to bring both of those qualities to a character, and he did it well. Demi Moore (who isn't my favourite actress) was fine as sculptor Annie Laird, and James Gandolfini carried his weight as Eddie, a sympathetic member of a local mob family. Ann Heche was superfluous as Annie's friend Juliet.
The story revolves around Annie being selected for jury duty in a murder trial involving the head of the mob family, Louis Boffano (Tony Lo Bianco.) Desperate to get Boffano acquitted, Eddie and the Teacher are sent to threaten Annie, telling her that unless she successfully argues for an acquittal in the case, her son Oliver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) will be killed. Given the nature of the story, I was expecting more jury room intrigue, as Annie desperately tried to get Boffano off to save her son. Instead, as far as I was concerned, the movie got way off track and ended up adding way too much to the story. The trial ends just a little over halfway through, and the last 45 minutes or so was much too much, and began to approach the level of being just plain silly. The mobsters turn on each other, the DA turns on Annie and then offers to protect her, and Annie becomes a gun-toting heroine in Guatemala of all places! Had the movie stuck more closely to the courtroom drama, and Annie's personal dilemma as she desperately tried to get Boffano acquitted even while knowing that he's guilty, this probably would have been both tighter and shorter, as well as better focused. As it was, seemed to me to be a bit of a jumble that tried too hard. (3/10)