A top notch telling of a fascinating true story.
With a great director like Clint Eastwood, it should come as no surprise that this movie is fantastically directed. What I love about Eastwood as a director is that he is never afraid to let scenes play out quietly. There is no need for constant noise or to move things along quickly. Clint is not afraid to let us slow down and take in the weight of what is happening. In fact many of the movies best scenes are more about our main characters taking in what is going on rather than things happening. These are the type of scenes lesser filmmakers would have left out, but ones that are necessary for a film like this to work as well as it does. This is a movie that is not about what happens as much as it is about the effect the story has on others.
This film does not belong solely to Clint Eastwood though. So much of what makes this movie work comes from its near perfect cast. Paul Walter Hauser has spent most of his career playing smaller character roles. However here he proves he is more than able to carry the lead role. In fact he is incredible as the title character. No one could have possibly played this role better. I personally hop after this movie he gets more chances to play lead roles. However there is not one character here who is miscast. Each actor is perfectly matched with the character.
Billy Ray crafted a fantastic script for this film. While it may not be subtle (there are a few lines given to the Kathy Scruggs character that feel like they belong to an over the top cartoon villain rather than a real person in a real life story), it is extremely effective. This script gives us every reason to truly care about and root for Richard Jewel, while still having him be a faulted and human character. It is also a smart script that may have some commentary but never stops to directly preach to us. This is a script that treats us like intelligent people and never feels the need to talk down to us to get its message across.
All in all this is a fantastic movie.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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