
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 10, 1994                   TAG: 9409140046
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE VERDICT IS NOT GOOD ON 'TRIAL BY JURY'

There's a fine thriller somewhere inside "Trial by Jury," struggling to get out. It almost makes it. In fact, some scenes have an almost hypnotic power, but they all belong to William Hurt, who's playing a supporting role.

When the focus is on the central conflict, the film is a fairly conventional gangster story with stars Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and Armand Assante generating feeble heat.

She plays Valerie Alston, a single mother in New York City, who is called for jury duty during the trial of mobster Rusty Pirone (Assante). By this early point in the story, five people have been murdered on screen. We know that Pirone, who seems to be loosely based on John Gotti, is a bad guy. Prosecutor Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne) knows it, too.

He may have bent some rules, but he has built a tight case. In desperation, Pirone orders Vesey (Hurt), an ex-cop who works for him, to find out which of the jurors can be intimidated into voting for acquittal. He fingers Valerie, and is so convincing when he threatens her and her 7-year-old that she agrees.

At his best, writer-director Heywood Gould turns the story into a believable character study. How would an ordinary person react to such an extraordinary threat? Can the police be trusted? Isn't an ambitious lawyer almost as untrustworthy as a gangster?

Vesey makes the case for compliance sound seductively logical. He's a burnt-out case who genuinely likes Valerie and is trying to do what he thinks is best for her. But is it really best? Hurt makes his guilt and uncertainty seem altogether real and believable.

If the two leads had been his equal, the film might have been terrific. Unfortunately, Assante resorts to the macho posturing that he's used in so many recent films, and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer is never completely convincing. When she's supposed to be completely distraught and confused, she looks like she has forgotten where she left her car keys.

With this kind of character-based story, the pace has to be deliberate, but it will still strike some as too slow. And the tone is uneven. At times, Gould seems to be aiming for the cartoonish ultra-violence of "Romeo Is Bleeding" or "True Romance." At other times, he goes for gritty realism. It's an unsatisfying mix, particularly at the end, where the careful plotting crumbles.

Trial By Jury HH1/2

A Warner Bros. release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 105 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, subject matter, sexual content.

by CNB