Runaway Jury **** (2003, John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman) – Classic Movie Review 902

The 2003 American legal thriller film Runaway Jury stars Gene Hackman as the splendidly slimy jury fixer Rankin Fitch, whose motto is ‘Trials are too important to be left up to juries’.

Director Gary Fleder’s 2003 American legal thriller film Runaway Jury stars Gene Hackman as the splendidly slimy jury fixer Rankin Fitch, whose motto is ‘Trials are too important to be left up to juries’. Anyone who’s ever done jury service hoping for a fair trial would probably agree with that.

But then, in this engrossing adaptation of one of John Grisham’s legal bestsellers, a fair trial’s totally out of the question as Hackman’s Fitch vets potential jurors for his rich clients to ensure they get the verdicts they want. Fitch is working for a company of gun-makers, the defendants in a controversial firearms control case, started by the widow (Joanna Going) of an attorney (Dylan McDermott) gunned down when office staff are massacred by an angry colleague.

Dustin Hoffman also stars as Wendell Rohr, the Louisiana prosecuting lawyer who is suing the gun-makers. And John Cusack plays Nicholas Easter, a member of the jury, who is willing to swing the vote in favour of the highest bidder with the help of mystery woman Marlee (Rachel Weisz).

With actors of this calibre firing on all cylinders in this lavish adaptation, John Grisham’s legal potboiler The Runaway Jury really does come to the boil quickly and stays there throughout. It provides a large helping of twisty entertainment while scoring a few important home truths about guns and juries along the way.

The screenplay by David Levien and Brian Koppelman (who also wrote Rounders, Walking Tall and Ocean’s Thirteen) and Rick Cleveland and Matthew Chapman is a winner.

Since the 1999 film The Insider had focused on tobacco companies, as Grisham’s book does, Regency Enterprises and the Warner Bros studio decided to make the plaintiff sue a gun company instead.

The film was released October 17, 2003.

It is the first film together of Hackman and Hoffman, who were classmates at the Pasadena Playhouse, where both were voted ‘Least Likely to Succeed’.

Producer Arnon Milchan’s production company Regency Enterprises and distribution partner Warner Bros paid a record $8 million for the rights to the novel, so it was a costly film at $60 million, and took a moderate total of $80.2 million worldwide.

Gary Fleder also directed Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995), Kiss the Girls (1997), Don’t Say a Word (2001), Impostor (2002), The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008) and Homefront (2013).

Cast: John Cusack as Nick Easter, Gene Hackman as Rankin Fitch, Dustin Hoffman as Wendell Rohr, Rachel Weisz as Marlee, Bruce Davison as Durwood Cable, Bruce McGill as Judge Frederick Harkin, Jeremy Piven as Lawrence Greene, Nick Searcy as Doyle, Luis Guzmán as Jerry Hernandez, Stanley Anderson as Henry Jankle, Marguerite Moreau as Amanda Monroe, Leland Orser as Lamb, Gerry Bamman as Herman Grimes, Nestor Serrano as Janovich, Ed Nelson as George Dressler, Joanna Going as Celeste Wood, Cliff Curtis as Frank Herrera, Jennifer Beals as Vanessa Lembeck Bill Nunn as Lonnie Shaver, Juanita Jennings as Loreen Duke, Nora Dunn as Stella Hulic, Guy Torry as Eddie Weese, Rusty Schwimmer as Millie Dupree, Rhoda Griffis as Rikki Coleman, Henry Darrow as Sebald, Corri English as Lydia Deets, Lori Heuring as Maxine, and Dylan McDermott (uncredited) as Jacob Wood.

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