"The Juror"

The Juror (1996) was covered by Scoopy when it was initially released to DVD, so I skipped it. He had a lot to say in one of his trademark lengthy reviews, but the bottom line was that there was a good movie here somewhere, but that they went on too long, and stretched the credibility with the audience too much for it to be a great film. I agree that the movie had the ingredients for a much better film, but I started having problems from the opening scene, and it is the usual thing that turns me off to a film, logic errors.

As the film opens, James Baldwin is performing a hit on a retired Godfather. He also shoots his grandson, but not his wife. Why on earth would he kill the kid and not the wife? As Senator Sam Irvin said at the Watergate Hearings concerning Nixon's tapes, not killing her made her a powerful witness against him. The second issue is single mother and struggling sculpture Demi Moore doing everything in her power to get on a jury that would almost certainly be sequestered. The judge tried very hard to excuse her. In fact, the judge may have been part of the jury tampering, although that is only hinted at. Even assuming that she was that patriotic or interested in criminal justice, she would not have been able to afford the time off of work without pay. I am not in love with the jury system anyway. Essentially, your fate is in the hands of 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty.

The film is all about how James Baldwin with a little help from James Gandolfini coerces Demi Moore into not only voting for a not guilty verdict, but convincing the other jurors. Supposedly, if she is successful, she and her son will remain unharmed. Baldwin is attracted to her, and this is not lost on the Godfather who is being tried, so after the verdict, Baldwin is ordered to continue to lean on her. Now we start an absolutely silly third act on another logic error. The Godfather had already been acquitted on the two counts of murder, and double jeopardy would prevent trying him again. However, it is in this third act that Baldwin seduces Anne Heche, Demi's best friend, and then kills her to send a strong message to Demi Moore. Demi got the message, but didn't react the way she was expected to.

Anne Heche shows breasts in a sex scene before her murder.

IMDb readers say 5.3. It won a Razzie for Demi, but earned $85.1M against a $44M budget. I would have expected the strong female character to give the film some chick flick votes, but that isn't the case. Critical response was cold. The jury tampering idea was a good premise for a film, James Gandolfini, and James Baldwin was competent, but whether the act three plot twists turn you off, or the succession of logic errors, it is a miss. C-.

Anne Heche