Richard Jewell Review
R: Language including some sexual references, and brief bloody images Runtime: 2 Hrs and 11 Minutes Production Companies: Malpaso Productions, Appian Way Productions, Misher Films, 75 Year Plan Productions Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Director: Clint Eastwood Writer: Billy Ray Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Paul Walter Hauser Release Date: December 13, 2019
Meet Richard Jewell. He’s a loser security guard who dreams of being a cop. He has a hard-on for the law and justice and tries to project power whenever he can. As I said: loser. Now you know where the people who created Paul Blart: Mall Cop drew inspiration from. Jewell goes from security job to security job in hopes of serving the government as an officer. One night, while working on duty as a guard at the Centennial Olympic Park celebration honoring the 1996 Summer Olympics, Jewell discovers a pipe bomb. Leaping into action, he leads an evacuation before the bomb detonates.
Oh, Mr. Clint Eastwood, you will never quit. Lately, the legendary director has displayed his hard-on for controversial American biopics that emphasize ‘MERICA. I don’t know, after American Sniper, his range of storytelling just mellowed into a current of conventionality. Hey, let's look at this American hero do this (Sully). Look at these American heroes do that (15:17 to Paris). Hell, let me portray an American hero and also include a scene where I have a threesome! Okay, The Mule might not have been centered on an American hero or a real-life figure, but it still occupies the same space as his other features. Now, he’s back with Richard Jewell, the story of an American hero that saved hundreds at an event and became a suspect by the government he thought he could trust. I have to hand it to Eastwood, it’s significantly better than his two previous features and has lead Paul Walter Hauser breakthrough at his finest hour. Eastwood’s last few features have primarily centered on American patriots who love their country and would do anything for it. While that kind of narrative is present here with its subject, the story revolving around Jewell — a hero who feels betrayed by his government as they view him as a suspect — is what really engaged me. He thinks he’s judge, jury, and executioner when he has no jurisdiction to pull half the shit he pulls. The FBI left this naive dude with a power trip on seen and when he questions why… well, it’s because he’s friggin’ weird. One of my favorite things about Richard Jewell is how it never paints him as a one-dimensional hero. They paint him as a flawed person who genuinely got lucky through all his efforts and did the right thing. Eastwood finally brings you to a two-way street and shows him as both a hero and a problematic dude. The movie addresses the real accounts of this man’s past and how he loves the FBI to a glaringly toxic extent that he oftentimes got in trouble for impersonating law enforcement years prior to the Olympic bombing. The film examines all of his negative attributes and brings them to light so that, by the time the FBI kicks down the door and investigates him as a prime suspect, you begin to question him yourself. I mean, you can Google it yourself and see the outcome of the events, but if you go into this blind, it begins to play mind games with you. You’ll start screaming at the screen like:
Comedian Paul Walter Hauser has been exhibiting glimpses of potential because he does a great job channeling characters who are unaware of their idiocy for comedic effect. You can draw comparisons between his portrayal as Jewell to the bodyguard he portrayed in I, Tonya and they’re mostly neck and neck in terms of personality. The only difference is that this is an expansion of his I, Tonya role and Hauser kills it. He may be dimwitted at first, but you see his personal life where he lives with his loving mother and is the center of attention. His obliviousness to it all is where you come to sympathize with him. Even when he’s hailed as a hero, he humbly rebuffs the compliment and responds by mirroring it back to the medical professionals and officers on the scene. This helps you open your heart to him in a certain way. This proves that Hauser has the power to command a movie on his own and keep you emotionally attached to him.
We’re now getting to that time of the year where actors are showcasing their best for the sake of some measly award nominations, but I personally liked the ensemble featured here. For the first time in a loooong time, I found Sam Rockwell genuinely charming. He’s not playing a racist for the umpteenth time this time around; instead, he’s the straight man to Jewell’s situation. He plays a lawyer that Richard befriends early in his career and the friendship between the two is charming to watch. This guy who actually treats Jewell as an equal and with respect is one of the strongest factors that made me thoroughly enjoy this. Then, you have Olivia Wilde as a horny journalist who sleeps with men just to get exclusive information. As problematic as that character’s execution is (a glaring reminder that, yes, this was written by a man, and this woman was REAL), I love Wilde’s eccentric and vibrant charisma. She obviously had a lot of fun being onscreen and I was here for it. She’s like a character straight from Big Little Lies. This is like a test audition for her to come on board as a character on the show because she perfectly fits the personality and tone. The way they depict her is fucked up and her presence doesn’t really fit, but if they spun the concept of this character for something like Big Little Lies it would rule. Kathy Bates as Jewell’s mom is really good. Not to demean her performance or anything, but she really nails the sympathetic mom who unconditionally loves her son, takes no shit, and makes a poignant speech regarding his innocence by the end. As I said, Kathy Bates is great, but this is just a thread of familiarity that I’ve seen ample times from her. One thing I love about Eastwood’s direction is that when he helms these movies based on true events, the highlighting sequence of that event is nail-bitingly tense as hell. Say what you will about The 15:17 to Paris, but watching it play out is great. The scene of the event at the Centennial Olympic Park celebration concert and how it’s executed is one of my favorite scenes this year. Your nerves just skyrocket as Jewell tries to secure the perimeter and finds the bomb in the midst of over a thousand people dancing to “The Macarena” (no kidding, this has the most extensive Kenny Rogers performance and dance scene to “The Macarena” I’ve ever seen in a movie). The stakes at that moment are so high and having prior knowledge of the reality of the event itself makes it even more terrifying to watch.
The fictional elements inserted for entertainment’s sake are so transparent that it harbored some of my enticement of the story. The first half of the movie, where it introduces Jewell as an unaware, power-hungry guy, and the scenes leading up to the bombing worked. But when it got to the FBI stuff, a lot of the fictional elements regarding Scruggs and the case against Jewell became so obvious that it really irked me throughout. The film also deviates from being this enticing topsy turvy examination of an interesting guy to emphasize on the biographical drama elements, hitting the same emotional beats to swindle you into throwing it awards. When Rockwell returns to the picture, it becomes entertaining again because it becomes a bit like Ren and Stimpy where this dimwitted guy is being investigated. With every reveal of Jewell admitting to something he shouldn’t have done, Rockwell responds with: “You eeediot.” I personally find this far better than the last few Eastwood features, but at this point, I feel we’re going through the same formulaic motions. This felt so similar to Sully’s formula, but with a more enticing subject. While it manages to flourish as its own identity due to Billy Ray’s screenplay, I could do without being presented with this narrative again. Rating: 3.5/5 | 74%
