QR Film Review: Richard Jewell
Clint Eastwood latest film continues the director’s tradition of working with real-world stories and translating them into digestible and entertaining films. Richard Jewel is no exception to Eastwood’s impressive catalogue, creating another highly proficiently film with standout performances elevating the final piece.
The film explores the structural fallings of American media and law, specifically in the form of the FBI. Commenting on the consequences of profiling and stereotyping individuals and the impact it can have upon their lives. The film is based on the real-world persecution and public trail of security guard Richard Jewel in the aftermath of the 1996 bombing at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, when Jewell was wrongly and public named as the prime suspect. The examination and portrayal of Richard Jewel by Paul Walter Hauser is where the films strongest thematic elements start to appear. Despite the story’s focus on the injustice of American institutions the themes of individuality, identity and worth is what pushes the film in its most interesting direction. By striking a careful balance between drama and comedy Eastwood and his team allows for excellent performances form Hauser and Sam Rockwell to spearhead the entertaining filmic version of events, playing off the audience’s assumptions and understanding of the characters and performances.
The careful balance of comedy and drama is best encapsulated by Hauser performance as Jewell. Here Hauser evokes his highly comedic and enjoyable role in 2017’s I, Tonya where he portrayed another real-world personality in Shawn Eckhardt. Hauser demonstrates an evolution, or at least when given the opportunity his ability to deliver a more complex emotional performance. Expanding on his archetypal role in I, Tonya Hauser adds an emotional weight and intrigue to his role as Richard Jewell alongside his still recognisable comedic delivery. The dynamic between Hauser and Rockwell, Jewell’s downbeat lawyer is the films strongest partnership with good performances from Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde supporting the two leads.
The film sets an enjoyable pace, scenes don’t overstay their welcome and each serve to progress the narrative and highlight the dynamic between the characters. An area for criticism comes from the film occasionally failing to let an emotional moment resonate and sit with audience long enough. Overall this doesn’t dramatically impact the film negatively but it certainly takes away some of the punch to a few scenes as the audience is trying to resonate with the moment. Where the film finds more cause for criticism is perhaps in the scripts treatment of some of the real-world characters, especially in its portrayal of Olivia Wilde’s character Kathy Scruggs. The script takes some artistic liberty with the character with some of her actions within film added to the script as oppose to reflecting that of the real-world person. This element of the film drew criticism upon the films American release and certainly detracted away from the film’s merits including the performance of Wilde along with her fellow cast and crew.
While films alike Richard Jewell, were real life stories and people are used to craft the basis of a feature length film, the re-telling of any story as a feature film should always be viewed as such, a retelling and reimaging of a story. Characters, events and people adhere to a script and the vision of the film makers behind it. While the questions of ethics and morality are certainly worth considering, films like Richard Jewell, Greenbook, BlaKkKlansman should always be viewed as simply evoking elements of reality and never presenting a complete or accurate retelling of the truth no matter the intention. The onus should not only be on the film-maker but also the audience’s to put their own thoughts and understanding when dealing with real-world, events, lives and moments within films.