Richard Jewell ***** (2019, Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde) – Movie Review

The dramatic true tale Richard Jewell (2019) is a lovely film, showing Clint Eastwood at his best as producer-director. Ironically, though Richard Jewell saves thousands of lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics, he is named as the terrorist by the media and FBI, an innocent victim of fake news, false accusation and trial by media.

It was named Movie of the Year at the 2020 AFI Awards, a bold but canny choice. Otherwise, only Kathy Bates got a sniff of any kind of award, with her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. It is a great pity she didn’t win.

The acting is superb. Billy Ray’s screenplay is complex and intelligent, warm and subtle, giving off different messages, just like real life. But the film’s attack on uncaring authority, fake news and media bias, and its defence of the rights of the individual, however peculiar or strange, come over loud and clear. It is quite a wide-reaching attack on the state of America but flies the flag for a heart-felt belief in the warmth and values of the ‘real’ Americans, who apparently are strange to the point of weird.

In twin portraits of evil, Jon Hamm (FBI man Tom Shaw) and Olivia Wilde (tabloid journalist Kathy Scruggs) are good in the thankless roles of the bad guys. Stars of the show Paul Walter Hauser (as American security guard and terrorist suspect Richard Jewell) and Sam Rockwell (as his quirky lawyer Watson Bryant) form an extremely strong double act, compelling and winning. Kathy Bates is also outstanding as Richard Jewell’s distraught mom, Bobi Jewell. She has a brilliant, heart-stopping scene at the end of the movie, going public to try to save her son.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Movie Review

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