THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409160051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
``TRIAL BY JURY'' would be more correctly titled ``Trial by Melodrama.'' Even in a real-life world in which the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson have provided amazing courtroom dramas, this is a bit much.
Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, playing a role that once would have been a natural for Joan Crawford, is a woman in jeopardy. A juror in a case in which an obviously guilty gang leader is accused of 11 murders, she ends up sleeping with the accused man and then is pummeled, beaten and manhandled by his henchmen; locked in the trunk of a car; and marked for death. Small wonder that she gets a bit miffed about the whole thing, even if there are persistent hints that she actually enjoyed sex with the accused man (Armand Assante).
This is 1940s melodrama that, we can only assume, is not meant to be believed. Unlike the usual thrillers of the '90s, it has no interest in being logical. Even after his men have tried unsuccessfully to kill her, Assante's character, who must be the most naive of godfathers, agrees to meet her for a country rendezvous with none of his bodyguards around. For the country visit, she dons formal evening gown with long gloves - perhaps a warm-up for her upcoming TV role as Scarlett O'Hara in the ``Gone With the Wind'' sequel.
With the evidence overwhelmingly against him, Assante threatens her small son in an effort to be sure that she votes for acquittal.
Gabriel Byrne, dropping his Irish brogue for a New York accent, is the prosecutor who is obsessed with locking up the gangster. When he learns that it was Whalley-Kilmer who was the lone hold-out who hung the jury and saved Assante, he investigates by calling at her apartment at 1 a.m. and offering an affair of his own.
In the film's most unfortunate outing, William Hurt tries valiantly to take it all seriously with his role as a sleazy ex-cop who now works for the gangster and gropes around making threats. Hurt is a brilliant actor who won an Oscar for ``Kiss of a Spider Woman.'' To see him sink to this level is unnerving.
Kathleen Quinlan, as a bar girl who covets Hurt, and William R. Moses, playing a handsome co-juror who - like every other man, it seems - must flirt with Whalley-Kilmer, add support. Such familiar faces as Stuart Whitman and Ed Lauter are also there.
Don't expect heavy-handed suspense here. It'll be all you can do to keep a straight face. If you choose this film, the best way to enjoy it is by laughing. The plot is so outrageously ludicrous that it, in a wrong-headed sort of way, turns out to be rather entertaining. ILLUSTRATION: WARNER BROS.
Joanne Whalley-Kilmer plays a juror who becomes intimate with the
defendant, a mob boss (Armand Assante), in ``Trial by Jury.''
MOVIE REVIEW
``Trial by Jury''
Cast: Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Armand Assante, Gabriel Byrne,
William Hurt, Kathleen Quinlan, Ed Lauter, William R. Moses, Stuart
Whitman
Director: Heywood Gould
Screenplay: Jordan Katz and Heywood Gould
Music: Terence Blanchard
MPAA rating: R (violence, sexual situation, some language)
Mal's rating: **
Locations: Surf-N-Sand and Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach;
Greenbrier and Movies 10 in Chesapeake
by CNB