Judas in the jury

Lawyer-turned-novelist John Grisham is well aware of the popular opinion of his former profession, and plays to the groundlings in his exaggerated legal fictions. They are easily digestible meat for the Hollywood screenwriter and Runaway Jury is no better, no worse, than the other films of his books. It has a solid dependability that makes for safe entertainment.

The setting is New Orleans, the most photogenic city in the US, and the text is jury-rigging.

In the run-up to a case brought against an arms manufacturer by the widow of a man killed in an office massacre, consultants are employed to pack the jury with people who will bring in the preferred verdict.

The arms company hires the brilliant and ruthless consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman); honest prosecuting lawyer Wendall Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) reluctantly accepts the assistance of jury consultant Lawrence Green (Jeremy Piven).

One Nick Easter (John Cusack) is among those chosen for the jury, apparently an aimless and easygoing young man who would rather be sitting in the French Quarter eating beignets and drinking coffee.

But it soon emerges that Easter is a plant, liaising with a freelance juryrigger, Marlee (Rachel Weisz), who is playing the two sides off against one another for her financial gain.

Nothing is quite what it seems and the twists of the plot are played out in some style by director Gary Fleder, who delivers some flashy montage sequences and avoids most of the usual clichés of New Orleans location shooting. Cusack is reliably good and Weisz rises to the occasion, but the big casting deal here is Hackman and Hoffman, who make their first appearance on screen together.

The Big Moment comes in the third act ("An overdue pleasure," says Hackman to Hoffman, which is as close to a wink as dialogue can get) when they meet in the courthouse washroom, where great use is made of mirrors and the height difference between the two actors - if only to prove that they really were on the same set at the same time.

A pity their first screen encounter wasn't in a more memorable movie.

Runaway Jury
Cert: cert12A