Vastly overlooked by audiences during its December release, Clint Eastwood's RICHARD JEWELL deserves much wider viewing.
Powerful, suspenseful and anchored by multiple Oscar worthy performances, it's another terrific film from the very reliable 89 year old Director.
We all think we know the story.
A security guard at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta saves untold lives by discovering a backpack bomb in the moments before it goes off.
Or is what you remember that Jewell himself was a loser, a loner and an attention seeking numbskull who planted the bomb himself?
In one of the best performances of 2019, Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya) gives an achingly transparent portrait of a lonely man, aching to be a police officer, aware of his own shortcomings but too polite to push himself or others toward his goals.
He lives in a tiny, modest home with his mother Bobi, played by Kathy Bates with a reality that will tear your heart out.
Eastwood gives us enough pre-Atlanta Richard to see him in all his flaws and dim-witted reasoning, bouncing from one job to another.
When his passion for order and law enforcement puts him in the absolute right place at the right time during the Olympics (impressively re-created by Eastwood and his usual team, filming at the actual locations), Jewell moves quickly and keeps the tragic bombing from being a large scale disaster.
At first praised, he's then put under the microscope when all the pieces of his life seem to portray the perfect profile of a man seeking attention.
The FBI agent in charge Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) focuses all his efforts on Jewell, letting his ego and panic preclude him from looking at other suspects.
Olivia Wilde plays reporter Kathy Scruggs, a hard-edged, brutally ambitious reporter who gets a tip that the FBI is honing in on Jewell.
The press's blind drive to be the first to publish and then be the first to find damning evidence on Jewell creates a firestorm in combination with the FBI's single-minded quest to convict Jewell at all costs.
Hauser's performance as Jewell is a simmering slow build, perfectly balanced by Sam Rockwell, who nearly steals the movie as Jewell's attorney Watson Bryant.
Watching the two of them bounce off each other from their first meeting years before the bombing through the press and law enforcement witch hunt is compelling and enjoyable.
Eastwood's sure hand brings the best out of his cast, with the exception of Wilde, who is painted in such broad strokes that she feels like a fantasy character within a real-life story.
But for every weakness in Wilde's scenes, there are brilliant counterparts in Bates, Hauser and Rockwell's performances.
You want to shake Jewell and tell him to stop being so damn respectful to people who are trying to bury him. When his attorney finally poses exactly that point, Jewell's response is somehow perfect.
The screenplay by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) is Oscar worthy as well.
You'll find yourself rooting for this quiet, simple man against the massive forces that turn fame and admiration into a massive personal attack in just a matter of days.
Is he perfect? Of course not.
I hope this powerful film that tells the real story of Richard Jewell eventually reaches more people than it did in theatres. It's a story that deserves to be told.
Eastwood, Hauser, Rockwell and Bates combine to tell it incredibly well. It's one of the best films of the year and gets an A.
Comments