Cheap Trial by Jury (DVD) (Joanne Whalley, Armand Assante) (Heywood Gould) Price

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Customer Reviews of Trial by Jury

Boring and badly written, no DVD extras
I should have followed my instinct to turn the movie off halfway through. The film was surprising only for its bad writing and lack of suspense (think "Movie of the Week" production of a so-so novel). Joanne Whalley, Armand Assante and Gabriel Byrne are all excellent actors who are completely wasted in these roles. The characters are throroughly uninteresting stereotypes and the finale is simply absurd.

The only redeeming quality in this mess of a film was the role played by John Hurt. He turns in a solid performance as the drunken, ex-cop on the mob payroll who can't bring himself to be the evil thug he's paid to be. However, that role alone doesn't even come close to redeeming the movie as a whole.

The DVD itself has no extras except for the movie's trailer so you're not missing anything special there. Frankly, I'd recommend 'The Juror' instead. That movie has a similar plot, and flaws of its own, but at least I didn't feel cheated when it ended.

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Another unjustly neglected picture-
--And not because of the script or the premise, which are frankly shlock: the mob gets to one key juror by threatening her son, and she manages to convince the rest of the jurors to let the bad ole mob boss walk, against their better judgement. In real life of course, the bad guys would've hedged their bets by threatening the families of most or all of the jurors, but then we wouldn't have our feisty protagonist who has to safeguard her son AND set things straight, and of course, no movie either.
Nevertheless, IN SPITE of the ridiculousness of the premise and the somewhat dated dialogue the script inflicts on some of the actors*, Joanne Whalley and William Hurt make this film worth watching. Whalley has to create a woman who initially strikes us as meek and unpreposessing, who somehow finds the resources within to first stir the jury to let the mob boss walk, then protect her son from the gangsters-- a tall order. Whalley does have what it takes to do this, the self-assurance to draw the viewer in, with a quiet and understated performance that makes this transition believable. Likewise, William Hurt is convincing as a weak, flawed man who wants to do right, playing both sides and knowing he'll get burned in the end. Whalley and Hurt are quite a contrast from Armand Assante, so good as a gangster in Q&A, but merely content to chew the scenery in a similar role
here.

*especially Gabriel Byrne and Armand Assante; at least we're spared them referring to Whalley as a dame.

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Great Cast
I get the sense that there were a lot of scenes that were left out of the final cut of this movie that might explain some character development. If you can suspend belief to get past some of the roughnesses, this will keep you interested.

Armand Assante and Gabriel Byrne have an electrifying, riveting chemistry in the scenes they are in together and I found myself returning to the moral premise of the movie long after the actual run time was over.