Trial by Jury

High profile New York mobster Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante) is put on trial for the murder of 11 individuals with the case spearheaded by ambitious District Attorney Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne). Seeking to secure his freedom by any means necessary, Rusty having already dispatched the prosecution's star witness sets his sights on creating deadlocked jury by extorting one of the jurors, in this case single mother Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer). Rusty sends former cop turned freelance enforcer Tommy Vesey (William Hurt) to put pressure on Valerie to vote "not guilty" with the threats of murder towards her son Robbie (Bryan Shilowich).

Trial by Jury is a 1994 legal thriller directed by Heywood Gould and co-written by Gould and Jordan Katz (who wrote the original screenplay under the titles The Hanging Jury and Deadlock). The film takes inspiration from the 1987 incident wherein George Pape, a jury foreman in a 1987 trial of John Gotti, sought out Gotti's underlings, who agreed to pay him $75,000 in exchange for a not guilty vote. The influence of the incident is pretty clear down to the character of Rusty Pirone being a pretty clear analogue for Gotti (and the casting of Assante who would play Gotti a mere two years later in an HBO TV movie). Made by Morgan Creek on a frugal budget in Canada, the movie was originally intended to be a much larger production with Phillip Noyce originally slated to direct and the role of Valerie considered for the likes of Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman, and Demi Moore (who'd ironically do a very similar movie called The Juror two years later). The role of Pirone was also offered to more name actors such as James Woods and John Travolta but both demanded salaries that Morgan Creek wasn't willing to pay hence why the ultimate casting was left without many big names. With no real big stars the film's distributor, Warner Bros., put the bare minimum to marketing the film and unceremoniously in a mid September release where it opened in fourth place behind some Summer holdovers (one of which was Noyce's Clear and Present Danger) with the film disappearing from theaters within two weeks. What critical reception there was tended to skew negative with many critics criticizing the dialogue and performances of the cast. While some of the critical derision of the film has been overblown, Trial by Jury is a mostly unengaging potboiler drama that harkens back to the B-movie noirs of RKO.

On the surface you seemingly have all the elements in place for a pulpy and engaging courtroom thriller with a ripped from the headlines premise inspired by a notirous case of Jury Tampering by the mafia and a high concept hook of a single mother terrorizing into voting to acquit a violent, manipulative, and sadistic murderer, but it's all the little pieces that make the film unravel with the biggest issue undeniably being in the casting. Having spoken to people involved in the production it's clear this was originally intended to be a bigger film than it with attempts at trying to court the likes of Nicole Kidamn, Jodie Foster and Demi Moore for the role of Valerie or James Woods and John Travolta for Rusty, and you get the sense that the casting is made up of the second, third, or even fourth choice on the list because the others either weren't available, unaffordable, or turned them down.

Joanne Whally-Kilmer (as she's credited in the movie) was in a number of films throughout the 80s and 90s typically in a supporting capacity but was most known for her work on British TV such as the serial Edge of Darkness. While Joanne Whally-Kilmer has been fine in some prior work, she's really not capable of doing lead roles and it really shows just how unequipped she was to take on a role that was written in mind with some of the most notable actresses of the 90s and she just doesn't sell it here especially in one scene where she gives an unconvincing emotional collapse that feels forced and unnatural. As for the rest of the cast they're all working with what they have. Rusty Pirone isn't all that interesting as a gangster, Gabriel Byrne isn't all that interesting as the DA (in fact Byrne was a late in the game last minute addition), and while Hurt is clearly trying his all in the role the character of Vesey isn't all that clearly defined and his heel turn and infatuation with Valerie feel really underdeveloped.

Trial by Jury is what it is, movie of the week material that's given just enough spit and polish so that it technically works on the silver screen. Maybe if the material had the actors the production team wanted maybe I'd be saying something different, but with the movie built around an actress like Joanne Whally-Kilmer who just isn't suited to a role of this magnitude and filled with uninteresting archetypes it's the kind of movie that's in one ear and out the other. I don't think I agree with the assessments that put this on their year's worst list (for my money Silent Fall is way worse as a thriller) and aside from some very "90s" takes on homosexuality it's a very typical thriller that just happens to be built around an unqualified lead.

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer plays your average single mom raising her young son Bryan Shillowich who gets picked for jury duty. But what a case, it's of mob boss Armand Assante who is a hands-on kind of guy, likes to be in on his hits as he gets some jollies out of it.

In real life this jury would be sequestered, but Assante has had no problems getting to Whalley-Kilmer whom he has singled out as the weak link on the jury to possibly get them to acquit or even hang it at least. One of the people doing his bidding is a corrupt ex-cop played by William Hurt. As bad as he is Hurt does have a bit of a soft spot for Whalley-Kilmer.

Trial By Jury is a rather overwrought drama with a cast that gives it their best, but is defeated by a most improbable story. Some of the courtroom scenes are pretty good though with Gabriel Byrne as the Assistant District Attorney. He's gotten a nice collection of jailhouse witnesses who even if they weren't getting cut some good deals to convict Assante might just do it on their own. Assante is feared, but he's hated just as much.

For fans of the principal cast members, especially William Hurt.

More often that not, I'll call a movie overrated, but this one, I think, is underrated. It features solid acting and a very involving story.

There isn't as much violence as most modern-day crime movies and that's fine because this story doesn't need it. The profanity is also lower-than-normal. All that's missing is better cinematography.

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Armand Assante, Gabirel Byrne and William Hurt all make this interesting and provide good performances. This is a good attention-diverting movie that is a good "date movie," too. It's tense without a ton of the usual overdone violence and profanity.

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.