Customer Reviews

The Juror

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Without Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin, this script never would have made it to film. It is a run-of-the-mill story about a single mother (Demi Moore) who is being pressured by an organized crime figure (Alec Baldwin) to vote "not guilty" on a high profile trial. The mob's leverage is her love for her son. Yawn. But Moore and Baldwin turn in fine performances: Moore as the defiant, intelligent, and terrified Annie, and Baldwin as her sociopath handler. Baldwin is so convincingly creepy and so demented in his take on everything that the audience fears intensely for Annie's survival.

This film contains some honestly terrifying sequences. Unfortunately, the ending is weak, and you're left with few memorable scenes. While this film was definitely a good escape for a couple of hours, you might want to question whether it is worth purchasing to see more than once.

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.

This high-profile star vehicle has decent suspense, unlike what reviews here will have believe, but little to recommend besides the lead performances -- Demi Moore is great (perhaps one of her best roles) and Alec Baldwin is very creepy as a three-dimensional villain.

After the usual Grishamesque legal session though, the movie gets somewhat needlessly protracted with Baldwin's character brutally murdering Moore's doctor friend, which begins a spree of semi-credible acts (including a supposed mafia boss being killed along with his three bodyguards, in broad daylight, in a public park. Yeah!) Until the mildly doozy finale in Guatemala, of all places.

Overall, definitely a one-time watchable film, but you may want to think twice before buying and owning it.

Demi Moore is great as a Bohemian single mom and struggling artist living alone with her 12-year-old son (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a converted barn in a country suburb of New York. When she becomes a juror in a murder case against a major Mafia boss, her peaceful life is turned upside down by a sociopathic hitman's (Alec Baldwin) obsession with her. Though she knows the mob boss is guilty, she is bullied into providing a verdict of 'not guilty' under threat of her son being killed. I see that some reviewers are 'yawning' that this story has been done before, but Moore and Baldwin give such fantastic performances that it seems like the first time anything of its kind has been done. The actors accomplish making their characters appear very real. Demi seems like she could be a woman who used to live on your block or who you once worked with, and Baldwin is like the living nightmare psycho you hope you'll never meet! Anne Heche is good as Demi's best friend, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is believable as the typical sweet kid of someone you might know. It is also a scenic, beautiful movie. Filmed partially in upstate New York in what looks like late May/early June, and in Central America, there's plenty of nice scenery. I think this picture is well worth owning and watching again and again.

If you didn't read the novel by George Dawes Green upon which this movie is based, you missed a lot of extra stuff that may have helped with the seemingly implausible points of the plot. A whole subplot involving the Teacher's lover and a has-been PI stimulated a lot of what is overlooked in the film version. But I think overall director Brian Gibson did a commendable job in translating this to the screen.
Demi Moore gives one of her best performances as the trapped mother; she is strong, yet vulnerable; determined and wise. Alec Baldwin is good at playing sleazeballs, but he tempers this with a sense of sensitivity he rarely displays; Anne Heche in an early role does well in the role of Juliette, although in the book Juliette's character is more fleshed out; James Gandolfino in a pre-Sopranos role is outstanding as Baldwin's henchman, who ends up siding with Moore; and Tony Lo Bianco in a brief role as the mafia don, is perfect in his sleazy shell.
THE JUROR is a manipulative movie, but done with enough style and finesse, to be a very entertaining thriller.

This is one of my favorite movies. I recently went to a movie in the theater and the young man was so familiar to me and by the time I got home I realized he is the same person as Demi Moore's son in this movie! I'm not a huge Demi Moore fan, this is one of three movies that I really thought she did a great job. Alec Baldwin is "deadly charming"...

Last night I started watching this DVD and my wife soon put down her Harry Potter book because this movie drew her into the suspense. It pulls peoples attention into it because of the fine acting by Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore and a great storyline. The rest of the supporting cast are good as well.

The story is a fresh one, a juror is first courted then tormented by a hit man for the mob. Alec Baldwin is quite adept at being scary when he wants to be and charming as well. Demi is by no means a helpless beauty. She shows herself to be artistic, intelligent, and resourceful as well.

When first threatened she succumbs to the demands of "The Teacher", but when he murders her closest friend, she sets a course for revenge. If the mob can't help her she will enlist the assistance of her friends in South America. One gets a pretty good idea of how a womans inner strength can prevail over the worst evil.

The DVD includes extras and has excellent picture and sound quality. Anyone that enjoys suspense movies like "Witness", "The Client", and "Narrow Margin", or TV series like "The Sopranos" should like this movie. If you like this you might also enjoy Alec Baldwin in "The Shadow".

Take a ride with the mob as they go down the wrong road in THE JUROR. Alec Baldwin becomes fascinated with Demi Moore, a juror he is trying to suborn for the mobster he "consults" for. His admiration for her leads him, and all of his co-conspirators to make a terrible series of mistakes. He is at his unhinged best in another of his pretty-boy psycho roles, angry perhaps that Tony LoBianco as the mob boss on trial, and James Gandolfini,another hood that calls himself Captain Crunch, look better, and are sexier than he is. Because Alec is the perfect stalker, almost pathetically so. He has such issues with women and people in general that he is utterly alone. Until he meets Demi Moore, a beautiful artist and single mother -then, too stupid to use a straight con on her, which would probably have worked, he immediately threatens her son, adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His many meetings with her repeat this torture, including one which makes her scream and vomit in fear, and thrill him just because he has an excuse to see her again. (None of his other women, we feel, survived their first date with him.) Alec falls more and more in love with her, to the disgust of his mafia bosses, because they know what a wierdo he really is.In the end, they all get just what they were asking for.

There is nothing "run of the mill" About ths movie. Demi and Alec were at their very best. The plot was perfectly played out. And, it ended as it should have!

The hatred/attraction tension between them was there until shortly before the end. I cannot think of two other actors who could have been as good.

This and Malice are my two favorite Alec Baldwin movies so far.

Highly Recommeded and well deserving of five stars.

'The Juror' is what you expect to be a typically Mafia story, but the film proves that a strong cast performance can overcome an ordinary storyline. Fabulous performances from Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin, specially Demi Moore who is absolutely incredible and very precise in playing Annie, for whom you would honestly give your heart out to, Annie is the woman you would like to care about, you can sneak into her heart every time and read her mind. The film is definitely worth watching, for an outstanding performance by Moore and Baldwin and a neat direction.