Il giurato

Obviously aimed for those who love the John Grisham type of thriller, THE JUROR has all the elements for a suspenseful film about jury tampering amid the trial of a Mafia boss, but doesn't quite reach its full potential. Perhaps the climactic showdown in Guatemala is where the story really runs into trouble finding a proper conclusion.

DEMI MOORE remains rather detached in her role as a young woman who is approached by ALEC BALDWIN for seemingly innocent purposes, when it turns out that he is actually someone called "The Teacher" assigned to get her to sway the others on the jury to vote for an acquittal.

He's so menacing (and Baldwin does "menacing" as well as any method actor available), that she reluctantly does her best to persuade the jurors to change their votes. Fortunately, these lamebrains have no capacity for thinking because it seems the lawyers have done an excellent job of finding the dumbest panel imaginable. But the story doesn't end with Moore influencing the verdict. That's just the beginning of even more peril for her.

It's the kind of film that works up to a point. But once the plot deals with further issues, it really gets out of hand. MOORE gives one of her less impressive performances, barely looking like a damsel in distress at any point. However, it's ALEC BALDWIN who makes the deepest impression with his sadistic villainy. He's never been one of my favorite persons (off the screen) but I have to admit he can play lowlifes with the best of them.

It's an average thriller, too lengthy for its own good and with an ending that should have been rewritten to make it more believable.

I am not a big Demi Moore fan and seeing this movie wasn't top priority but afterwards I was very pleased with the outcome. This is, by far, Demi Moore's best film to date as she shows so much emotion as a single mother stuck in a difficult position between working for the mafia in order to save her family and herself. Moore truly deserved an Academy Award nomination if not a win, and the Razzies were very out of line by giving her Worst Actress for this (it was moreso for "Striptease" and that also wasn't that bad...a thing about the Razzies, they don't know what the hell they're talking about half the time). Alec Baldwin is pretty good as the villain and Anne Heche gives all she has as the token best friend. Ted Tally's ("Silence of the Lambs") script is riveting and keeps you on the edge of your seat. A great suspense film with a great performance by Demi Moore...see it and believe it. 8/10

Alec Baldwin comes on quoting from the Tao Te Ching, making me think he's my kind of anti hero. He's urban, sophisticated and seemingly very safe since he's an art curator, or seems to be. Demi Moore as Annie Laird, a gifted and original sculptor (she sculpts works of art that you feel with your hands by reaching up into them: it's all tactile), is thrilled when he offers to buy her work and sell it to the Japanese. Wow. She has arrived as an artist.

Thus we have an intriguing and original premise for a thriller. One almost wishes that there weren't this little matter of her agreeing to serve on the jury in the case of a Mafia boss on trial for murder..

I will gloss over the excellent, if unlikely, plot since it would be preemptive to reveal any of it, and concentrate on Demi Moore who is gorgeous, strange and riveting.

It might seem impossible to give an 'heroic' performance in a thriller, since the point of a thriller is pure entertainment, but this movie manages to look into the nature of good and evil a bit more than most, and Moore plays her part like our dream of a true heroine. Her character has strength and cunning; she's sharp without pretension. I always thought Moore was better than her reputation, but somehow she always seemed a little on the not entirely bright side, the kind of actress who would never presume to play Shakespeare. But now I think she's a 'natural,' like a gifted athlete-I'd almost say an 'animal'-as an actress, which is probably why some people don't like her. She can project the beautiful woman, an ordinary woman, or herself as a matronly woman with just a turn of her head. She can display a wide range of emotions and be, by turns, both a masculine and a feminine entity; but she is not androgynous. The role she plays here is, in a sense, the feminine counterpart of many Harrison Ford roles, the ordinary person elevated to heroic action by compelling circumstances. I would not say that Demi Moore is a great actress, but she is close, and I could be wrong.

Alec Baldwin combines megalomania with a seductive cynicism. He fills the screen with his presence like something you can't get rid of. He is so compelling you want to push him away or just give up. And he is charming-evil, but charming.

Brian Gibson's direction is unobtrusive and clever, and he pays attention to detail. The script is relatively free of the implausibilities that usually mar the genre, and the editing is crisp without jarring. The story practically transcends the genre by making us feel the evil of violent crime and how it perverts society, the sort of revelation not usually attempted in a thriller. I was especially delighted to see the Mafia demeaned and defeated, even if it's only by a new breed of international criminal. This is a superior thriller.

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A movie with this much pedigree should have been better. Solid acting all around, competent direction, a better than average script from Ted Tally, somewhat fresh off his Oscar win for Silence of the Lambs.

It's just that nothing really happens. Or not much, at least. The beginning is taut and engaging. But then it plods through until the extremely predictable ending. And how they missed the opportunity not to hang the bad guy at the end, given the San Simon reference earlier, I don't know. I guess they wanted one less than obvious thing in there. Pacing is the biggest problem here, along with the lack of action. 20 minutes should have been hacked off the final product and this could have been quite a bit better.

This Juror isn't as bad as some reviewers might make it out to be. Granted it is a bit protracted and could be called disjointed as well but it's not devoid of any intensity. Overall its a mediocre thriller but what sets it apart,in the eyes of this reviewer,is Alec Baldwin's performance. Most good actors give some of their best work as villains and Baldwin is well cast in the role of a psychotic hitman. While sometimes a great performance is really more of a great character, this is a case of a passable role that is brought to life by the actor. Who also revitalizes the entire film.