Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) had always wanted to be in law enforcement but things just never worked out for him. Even a job as security for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, feels like a pale imitation of the real thing. Then Jewell sees a suspicious package which turns out to be a bomb and his actions in alerting authorities and crowd control save lives. Suddenly, Jewell is the hero he's always dreamed of being. But suspicion quickly falls on him, led by an ambitious reporter (Olivia Wilde) and a harried FBI investigator (Jon Hamm). The eyes of the world are on this terrorist attack and the FBI is pressured for a quick solution. Jewell fits the initial profile of a "false hero" despite the lack of any evidence, something his lawyer (Sam Rockwell) is quick to point out.
I remember the '96 bombing. I don't remember the focus on Jewell other the initial hero story but I was a teenager and not interested in anything beyond Kerri Strug's broken ankle. I do remember when the real perpetrator, Eric Rudolph, was arrested after hiding in the national forests for six years. Eric Rudolph is a white supremacist domestic terrorist responsible for three bombings in addition to the Olympic Park bomb, one of which was in my home state of Alabama. Rudolph stated his intentions were to stop the "homosexual agenda" by filling pipe bombs with nails. Too bad he's gonna die in a supermax or he could be looking at a SCOTUS position.
But about this movie. Eastwood has always been very minimalist behind the camera, choosing stories that don't have a great deal of nuance but do have tons of patriotism that focus on a lone individual/small group standing for their rights. Richard Jewell is in keeping with this theme but there's less Rah-Rah-America here. Jewell is definitely the underdog and Hauser plays him with a sweetness and vulnerability that really pays off in the third act. Sam Rockwell is a national fucking treasure. The End. Kathy Bates is phenomenal, as always, giving me flashbacks to every Woman of a Certain Age that went to my dad's church.
The only character that really fell flat for me was Wilde's reporter. She's very obviously the villain of the piece, portrayed as abrasive, slutty, unprincipled, and grasping but she really only has about 20 minutes of overall screen time so her eventual Road-to-Damascus conversion and remorse feels tacked on and forced. Hamm's FBI agent is a close second. I really wish they'd just let Jon Hamm do comedy. He's very funny and I'd love to see him follow more of a Timothy Olyphant/Chris Pine career path.
Anyway, Richard Jewell is currently streaming on HBO which I get through Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment