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Cate Blanchett brings her chameleon-like abilities to
the true story movie, Veronica Guerin, playing an Irish
journalist reporting on the drug trade.
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Chameleon queen Cate Blanchett and John Cusack, champion of average Joe characters, crossed paths on-screen in the little seen 1999 comic drama, Pushing Tin. Boasting a blonde wig and a thick, Long Island accent, Blanchett was unrecognizable as the frustrated wife to Cusack's workaholic air traffic controller while Cusack was his usual, affable, everyman self. It's what we've come to expect from each of them.
No actors represent opposite performance styles better than Blanchett and Cusack. Two likable new films, Veronica Guerin, a true crime story starring Blanchett, and Runaway Jury, an adaptation of a popular John Grisham courtroom drama featuring Cusack, showcase them at their best.
Blanchett sports short blonde hair, heavy eyeliner, a firecracker personality and a credible Irish accent as Guerin, the star journalist for Dublin's The Sunday Independent. Blanchett is barely recognizable as Guerin; a bonus in any true story movie.
Director Joel Schumacher has a skilled melodrama in Veronica Guerin, a high-tempo tale about the crusading Dublin journalist who was brazenly murdered by Irish gangsters in 1996 for her series of stories on the Irish drug trade.
Blanchett's determined face is the film's symbol, and she makes the most of her emotional scenes wading through the grime of Dublin's housing projects uncovering the awful truths about Ireland's drug kingpins.
Schumacher knows he has a winning performer with Blanchett, and all her best qualities are put to good use in Veronica Guerin. Her intellect is sharp; her do-good spirit even sharper. Blanchett matches comfortably with Guerin's working-class looks and scrappy demeanor, creating a lifelike character more unorthodox than the typical movie heroine.
Blanchett is more dedicated actress than Hollywood celebrity, which means she frequently chooses interesting roles over high-profile projects. Every film offers further proof of Blanchett's versatility. She played 25-year-old Queen Elizabeth I struggling to restore stability to 16-century England in director Shekhar Kapur's costume drama Elizabeth; a gambling obsessed heiress opposite Ralph Fiennes in Oscar and Lucinda; a small town psychic in director Sam Raimi's supernatural thriller The Gift; a frustrated housewife who joins a pair of bank robbers in the caper comedy Bandits and a fairy queen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some films are better than others, but Blanchett sparkles throughout. Believability is the thread that connects her diverse characters. She harnesses her star power and charisma to fit the role. Basically, she'll look unattractive if the part calls for it.
Ciarin Hinds matches Blanchett's performance as John "Coach" Traynor, her source inside the Irish mob. Hinds balances charm and menace deftly, creating the best type of shadowy character: a total surprise.
Gerard McSorley crackles with evil as John Gilligan, the Irish crime boss desperate to silence Guerin. Gilligan holds his temper inside until those flashpoint moments where he can't contain them any longer. When Gilligan explodes during a visit from Guerin, the effect is frightening.
Schumacher, working from a script by Carol Doyle and Mary Agnes Donoghue, provides some heavy-handed, heartstring moments. The sentimental flourishes in Veronica Guerin are kept under control by Blanchett's extraordinary performance. For every cliché misstep, she is responsible for 10 believable scenes.
At face value, Veronica Guerin is just an entertaining melodrama, but I'll take a competent melodrama over a half-baked Hollywood extravaganza like Seabiscuit any day.
As the mystery man at the center of director Gary Fleder's competent adaptation of John Grisham's popular 1996 novel The Runaway Jury, Cusack is at his low-key best as Nick Easter, a New Orleans video game store clerk who becomes a reluctant juror for a high-profile case against the gun industry. At least that's how it looks initially. The catch to Easter -- and the spirit behind Runaway Jury -- is that there is more to him than meets the eye.
Runaway Jury is as swift and surprising as a Grisham adaptation needs to be. The subject matter is timely thanks to a tweak by the film's team of screenwriters, Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Rick Cleveland and Matthew Chapman. The book's original target, tobacco companies, is shifted to gun manufacturers when an office massacre by a disgruntled former employer sets up the high-profile trial.
Dustin Hoffman settles comfortably into a colorful performance as gentlemen lawyer, Wendall Rohr, the man representing the widow who brought the civil case against the gun companies.
Gene Hackman enjoys the lion's share of attention as Rankin Fitch, the slick and ruthless jury consultant hired to select a jury who will side with the gun companies and prevent a costly settlement. Fitch frequently watches the action from the shadows. He also delivers the juiciest lines of dialogue in the film.
"Trials are too important to be left to juries," he tells his staff.
Rachel Weisz gives the story an added spin as Marlee, the mysterious woman battling Fitch for control of the jury. The key mysteries are: Where have Marlee and Easter met before? What is the significance of a small town in Indiana?
Hackman has done Grisham adaptations before, The Firm and The Chamber, so he understands the type of blustery performance Runaway Jury requires to sustain its roller-coaster tempo.
Hackman and Dustin Hoffman chew up the New Orleans scenery with gusto. They're fun to watch but Cusack's steady, dependable juror keeps the film humming.
Fleder has become experienced at thrillers, thanks to his last three features, Don't Say a Word, Kiss the Girls and Imposter, although none of them are noteworthy. Aiming for something different than 12 Angry Men, Fleder balances Runaway Jury's spy vs. spy elements with the courtroom drama, especially the machinations behind the jury selection at the beginning of the film.
The dollops of espionage Fleder sprinkles throughout, the obligatory parade of black cars, apartment break-ins and a sinister confrontation aboard a St. Charles street car, provide narrative stumbles as well as jolts. The film's best thrills occur in the jury box, not in the shadowy French Quarter streets.
Runaway Jury misses a beat at its climax, which is the worst thing that could happen to a courtroom drama. Thankfully, enough thrills occurred earlier in the film to soften our disappointment.
Veronica Guerin Grade: B
Runaway Jury Grade: C
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