In this drama based on John Grisham’s best-selling novel, Nick Easter (John Cusack) gets himself on the jury of a landmark case against a gun manufacturer and, as the foreman, tries to influence the other jury members to vote a certain way. Meanwhile, Easter’s girlfriend, Marlee (Rachel Weisz), tries to swindle the attorneys (Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman) to pay millions of dollars to have the jury return a verdict friendly to their clients.
On it's own this film is just unfortunate, but in comparison to the book it's unforgivable. The cynical, interesting characters of the book have become flat, either ridiculously heroic or villainous. Even worse the film ducks the central, controversial issue of the book.
t stars out as a promising crime thriller with a solid cast of 90ies superstars past their heyday. The first twist actually surprised me and I was impressed that the movie did not go down the road… read review