Le 12ème juré

Pirone (Armand Assante) is a mob boss being brought to trial by DA Graham (Gabriel Bryne). When the star witness is whacked Graham replaces him with another mob boss. Pirone targets once of the jury, a single mother Valerie (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) using dirty ex-cop Vesey (William Hurt) to get close to her. Valerie must hang the jury or risk her and her son being killed.

This is a solid mob courtroom thriller with a edge. The story is interesting because you're not sure how Whalley-Kilmer will deal with the situations she is put in - it is quite tense for most of the movie. The actors are all good, Hurt especially plays against type with his shady dirty cop, Bryne does well but Whalley-Kilmer is not that good. Given the demands of the lead character Valerie it may have benefited from a better actress - that said she carries off the innocent single mother role convincingly. All the mob roles are played by actors who you'll see in lots of other gangster flicks including Goodfellas, The Sopranos etc. Some other interesting faces appear - William R. Moses of Perry Mason TVM "fame" appears as a jury, while David Cronenberg has a walk-on part as a film director.

While Whalley-Kilmer doesn't totally convince in Valerie's character change towards the films conclusion the majority of the plot holds together well. If you've seen Demi Moore in "The Juror" then this is similar in plot but "Trial by Jury" is a much stronger film.

TRIAL BY JURY has quite a bad reputation. It has a score of 5,3 and only 20 reviews to date, all this would lead to a terrible movie. As for me, I decided to watch it the day it was announced that William Hurt died and I had to celebrate his career somehow.

Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley) is a juror on jury duty in a trial where Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne) is determined to put crime boss Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante) behind bars. After a failed trial Pirone sends an henchman, former cop Tommy Vesey (Hurt) for trying to get off his charges, and Vesey will warn Valerie that unless she cooperates the Pirone family will murder her son. So she hasn't any other choice than take her kid to grandpa (Stuart Whitman in one of his last movies) and hope that the jury votes her way while Vesey will have a change of heart and tries to protect Valerie.

With such an excellent cast full of well known names and that premise it could have been a good movie, right? Well, you are wrong. The plot was confusing most of the time and I thought they must have heavily edited it before the release, while the acting was probably the only good thing about this movie especially by Whalley and Hurt. The script too looked like it had lots of re-writes and at times the pacing was dull.

Overall, not that terrible but a misfire for the reasons mentioned above. There have been lots of great courtroom dramas and two years later they made a movie pretty much identical to this one but better: THE JUROR with Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin. This instead is only of interest if you are a fan of some members of the cast.

This film is so much better than The Juror. William Hurt is outstanding as a conflicted man, Kathleen Quinlan is amazingly creepy in her role, the tension between Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and the others, Armand Assante in particular, is emotional and well done. You will feel her isolation and fear. You will feel Gabriel Byrne's frustration as he tries to catch the mob boss and and work within the law only to have the legal system perverted by the influence of that mob. You will see how his character, who grew up with the mobster (Assante) could easily have gone in that direction. It has a great supporting cast with people like Joe Santos, Ed Lauter and Margaret Whitton. The film is also done in a film noir style. If you like classy films, you'll love it.

TRIAL BY JURY is an example of a movie that doesn't realize how funny it is. Take the scene where Joann Whalley-Kilmer is seduced by Armand Assante, although he is leering at her sleazily the whole time Assante is on trial.(she is a jury member, see) Then things get real silly with all the plot twists, and a real hammy slow-burn performance by Gabriel Byrne. I caught the film one day on pay cable, and once again recently on TNT, and the funniest thing was, the actors kept a straight face the whole time.

Which brings me to Whalley-Kilmer. Who gave her this Ashley Judd part? Not to say that Whalley-Kilmer isn't game in her part as the dumbest-smartest jury member in the world. But Judd is much better at making these unbelievable legal "thrillers" bareable(i.e. DOUBLE JEAPORDY). I love when Hollywood makes a film that it doesn't know is as funny as it is.

I discovered this film while searching for laserdiscs. It's a good way to find forgotten gems. TBJ is a crime film that never becomes tiresome mostly due to the fantastic emotionally alluring portrayal of a single mom by Joanne Whalley. She's your average girl stuck in a mess with a megalomaniac king pin. Fortunately for the viewer her body is not average, giving her character that added, "I don't know I'm sexy" vibe. Armand Assante turns in a great performance as he easily puts out charm and terror with a simple stoic glance. The root of the film which is the two worlds colliding, gets delivered with believability.

The real gritty hoots of the film are William Hurt playing a twisted x cop that still has remnants of good in him and the ever delectable Kathleen Quinlan as a quirky sot. I really liked the script. The seedy undercurrent feel that the film has is captured with words that give an inner chuckle and a solid outer grimace. Some courtroom antics are quite stagey but those scenes can be muscled through if you like the genre. TBJ is not a routine crime thriller and throws some very interesting entertainment punches.