Review of Runaway Jury (2003) by Alvin Y — 02 Jun 2010

Runaway Jury is a complicated script that throws the viewer off several times while finally pulling it all together into an ingenious plot, directed quite brilliantly.

At first, the movie seems like its about a corrupt prosecuting attorney who wants to use cheating devices to win a case for the gun companies. Then, it looks like a movie about two money hungry criminals trying to bleed money out of both sides of the court. Then, it turns into something else.

The genius of the film is that your guess of the conspiracy is never right. Not only is it very gripping, but it also contains a pretty tight cast. Dustin Hoffman is, as always, excellent. Cusack and Hackman do a fantastic job. Weisz...well, I don't know what to think. She seems a little cheesy, but that could be how she is supposed to act. Either way, the acting is pretty solid.

The story is surprisingly unique, which you don't find much anymore with court dramas. It does not really deal with the court issue itself, but on everything that happens behind the scenes with the attorneys, the consultants, the judge, and of course, the jury. It provides a very fascinating look into the whole system.

The downfall to the movie is that it is often very confusing. Of course, that is point of the directing, but it takes a long time to piece everything together, which means that the viewer loses some things by only watching it once. Still, I can find little to complain about it.

Runaway Jury definitely surprised me, and I believe that it's pretty underrated.