Film Review: Richard Jewell

Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Acceptable
Vulgarity Mature
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable

After seeing American Sniper, I was shocked that someone of Clint Eastwood's age was still able to direct something as vibrant and emotionally vital as that.  They key, I believe, to the continued strength of his movies is that Eastwood tells stories about which he is extremely passionate.

And that passion is clear in his latest film Richard Jewell.

Eastwood tells the tale of  Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) the socially awkward security guard as he dreams of law enforcement.  In his early days as a supply clerk he makes the acquaintance of Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), a hot-headed lawyer who treats Jewell with basic respect and decency.  He lives with his mother Bobbi (Kathy Bates) in their small, lower-middle class apartment.  Jewell wants to be some kind of police officer, but awkward and slow nature seem to impeed him.  He is constantly the object of ridicule for his weight and the way he speaks.  But while working security during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Jewell discovers a backpack with a bomb.  Though the bomb explosion does result in some fatalities, Jewell's actions saves lives and for a short while he basks in the heroic adulation and affirmation that was denied him his whole life.  However, the lead FBI agent (Jon Hamm), with no other strong leads, looks at Jewell as a suspect.  His awkward nature  along with his frustrated dreams of heroism fits the profile of a potential bomber.  But it is when Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde), a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, seizes this information as an opportunity to get a national scoop, she makes Jewell the prime suspect for the crime in the eyes of the country.  What follows is slow shredding of Jewell's entire life.

The movie was incredible at creating tension.  Even though I knew the events of the Atlanta bombing very well from when they first happened, I was still on the edge of my seat as I was waiting for the bomb to be discovered and was scared for all involved.  And then Eastwood turns the screw to a different kind of tension as the walls slowly start closing in on Jewell.  You cannot help but root for him and want to yell out at the screen (as some people in my movie theater did) telling Jewell not to listen to the manipulative feds.  Each step in the process is claws at the heart.

The center of the entire movie is Hauser's mesmerizing performance.  This year Joaquim Phoenix is being rightly heralded as the best actor of the year.  But Hauser does something that not even Phoenix pulls off: I can't tell that Hauser is acting.  His performance is so natural as Jewell that it doesn't seem like any kind of artifice or technique.  It isn't that I believe Hauser as Jewell.  It is that Hauser's awkwardness, slowness, and natural decency seem so natural to him as a person that it felt like I was just watching the real person on the screen.  In the hands of a lesser actor, Jewell would have been simply a collection of stereotypical qualities layered over a hammy performance.  But Hauser feels so genuine and his emotion is so powerful without feeling fake.  His chemistry with the cynical Rockwell is perfect.  They are the quintessential yin and yang that balances the movie to both strong comedic and dramatic effects.  Hauser's relationship with feels very real and their affections are the glue of the movie.  This is one of Bates' best performances in years as Bobi's worry for her son clouds the entire film.

One of the great strengths of the script is how it shows Jewell is this seeming contradiction: he's slow, but he's not stupid.  He is not quick-witted and he struggles to express himself.  He comes off as not the brightest.  But Jewell is actually very intelligent.  He studies hard.  He is observant, not only of the environment but of other people's nature.  In one scene, before the FBI tell Jewell he is a suspect, they try to trick him.  They tell him they need his help filming a training video.  As part of the video they want him to demonstrate for the camera how to sign a document that waives your Miranda rights.  The agents take Jewell's polite and and docile nature to be gullibility.  But the scene does not end the way I expected.  Jewell knows that he is being railroaded, but he has such a hard time believing that federal law enforcement, the kind of people he looks up to, would lack his basic decency.

That is the heartbreak of the film.  Richard Jewell was simply a decent man who wanted to do what was right.  Sadly, he seemed to fall into that category of person whose abilities don't seem to match their ambitions.  Despite this, Jewell wasn't resentful or bitter.  He did his best to make the world a better place the best he knew how.  But because he did not fit easily to socially acceptable appearances, he became an object of ridicule, hate, and suspicion.  I love the way that Eastwood almost dares you to join the mockers in laughing at him.  In of the most moving scenes, Jewell breaks down in a restaurant while eating a chocolate donut.  Eastwood doesn't try to "clean him up," but presents him in all his awkwardness and reminds us that this too is a man.  The movie made me reflect on how often I have avoided interaction with people I've found awkward, and thus I withheld from them the kindness and human respect they deserve.

The main criticism of the movie is that it makes its "villains" completely one dimensional.  Hamm and Wilde do not give stellar performances, but they are not given much to work with.  They are simply made of nastiness and ambition, with no nuance or depth.  This is a shame, because the script by Billy Ray should have had enough confidence in the audience to be able to sympathize with Jewell without turning his enemies into monsters.

As always, though Eastwood directs this movie with his trademark confidence.  He doesn't rely on manipulative scores, but lets the emotion and the drama of the scenes speak for themselves.  His use of lighting is so subtle yet powerful.

I absolutely recommend this film.  It will remind you about how in our world of modern news media, we can quickly destroy people's lives to feed our appetite for the latest dirt.  And it is a sad reminder that this world makes it so hard to be good and decent sometimes.  Despite that, I left the theater moved and ultimately uplifted by the the idea that there are good men in the world like Richard Jewell.