THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090063
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
THE NEWS, shocking though it may be, is that Demi Moore does not strip in her latest film, ``The Juror.'' She's apparently saving her energy for her summer release, ``Striptease.''
Putting the scarlet letter A behind her, she's now dealing with the letter, D, for somewhat dumb. In this slick and cleverly paced thriller, she plays a feisty juror who is forced to completely turn her fellow jurors from a verdict of ``guilty'' to ``not guilty.'' If she fails, the mob will kill her son.
It's an unlikely assignment because the evidence against the Mafia boss, Tony Lo Bianco, is somewhat overwhelming. There is a tape recording of him ordering the killing. Still, this isn't quite as conclusive as, say, a trail of blood leading directly from the murder site to the murderer's home.
Moore's motivation is provided by a sleazy but intensely handsome Mafia hit man, played by Alec Baldwin (less paunchy than in recent outings), who harasses her during the trial.
The movie plays the tease game as it keeps suggesting that maybe, in spite of her spunky rebuffs, Moore is sexually attracted to the bad guy.
Baldwin and Moore have a whispering contest to see who can evoke the huskiest and most smoldering voice. If only we could have gotten Clint Eastwood into the cast, we could have made it a whispering convention.
The supporting cast works hard. James Gandolfini brings some world-weary levity to his role as Baldwin's partner. He almost lets us know that he feels the whole thing is ridiculous.
Lindsay Crouse is stern and concerned in the Marcia Clark role - the woman lawyer who spots, from just a hint, that Moore is a crooked juror. Unlike Clark, she doesn't have anything as obvious as a juror who gives victory signs to the accused as he enters the court.
Joseph Gordon Levitt, though, is one of those child actors who is so petulant as to make us wonder if he's worth all the effort his mom goes through to keep him alive.
Interest in juries and the justice system has increased due to several real-life cases recently. The movie, though, is wise in that it eliminates most of the courtroom scenes and sticks to the behind-the-scene tampering.
The plot is almost identical to 1994's ``Trial by Jury.'' As if getting sensible folk to serve on juries wasn't enough of a problem in our somewhat defrocked justice system, do they have to now make movies to train mobsters to stalk and harass jurors?
Things get to a silly stage as Demi ends up in Guatemala with guns smoking. The Mafia should learn not to mess with this woman. If you like serious thrillers, you'd better learn the same lesson.
If an entertaining potboiler is enough, though, this one is neatly photographed and with enough window dressing to almost hide the center. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Juror''
Cast: Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, Tony Lo Bianco, Lindsay Crouse,
Anne Heche, Michael Constantine
Director: Brian Gibson
Screenplay: Ted Tally, based on the book by George Dawes Green
MPAA rating: R (nudity, language, simulated sex)
Mal's rating: Two 1/2 stars
Locations: Cinemark, Regal in Chesapeake; Janaf, Main Gate in
Norfolk; Kemps River, Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke, Surf-N-Sand in Virginia
Beach
by CNB