Review: Richard Jewell

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Richard Jewell was a victim of circumstance - a security guard who discovered a bomb in a backpack in Atlanta's Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympic Games. Through a run of bad luck - and likely bad investigatory tactics - Jewell was railroaded and turned into the FBI's number one suspect. His name was sullied in the press, and as a result his life was - at least for a period of time - ruined.

There's enough material here to make for an interesting movie about an innocent man wrongly accused, which is why it's curious that director Clint Eastwood, whose films typically explore their subjects in more subtle fashion, felt the need to take a hit piece approach to a story about a man who was the victim of one himself.

While Eastwood had a pretty great run last decade with such films as "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby" and the "Flags of Our Fathers/Letters to Iwo Jima" combo, his work this decade is a little more uneven. "American Sniper" was a good one, although woefully misunderstood by both sides of the political aisle, and last year's "The Mule" was a movie that, based on its trailer, I expected to be some sort of MAGA fantasy, but it ended up being much subtler than that.

"Richard Jewell," on the other hand, somewhat justifies the vibe I picked up on during the trailer. Those who were left scratching their heads after Eastwood talked to an empty chair at the 2012 Republican convention will find plenty of evidence in his latest film to make a case that the director's political statements on film have become slightly more heavy-handed. In recent years, Eastwood has taken on one of two subjects in his films - aging men facing consequences ("The Mule" and "Gran Torino") and movies about men he believes to be heroes, but have been shortchanged (in his opinion). "American Sniper" fits into the latter category as well as "The 15:17 to Paris," which was his weakest film in years, and "Sully," which was good enough but, perhaps, overdramatized its hero's conflicts with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Regarding "Richard Jewell," it's curious that at this moment in history Eastwood would make a film that depicts the FBI and the media to be villains - on one occasion, this statement is reinforced with a large Confederate flag, which makes several appearances in this movie, in the background. The picture manages to get in a veiled shot at Bill Clinton, and the conception of the National Rifle Association as a possibly dangerous entity is somewhat sneered at during a conversation. Curiously enough, while the film focuses on Jewell's scapegoating, it never makes mention of the fact that the real Centennial Park bomber, Eric Rudolph, was a homophobic, right-wing terrorist.

One of the film's biggest problems is the portrayal of its characters. For starters, the film is apparently supposed to be in Jewell's corner, but the picture goes out of its way to somewhat condescendingly depict the man as a boob - a heavy-set security guard with a mall cop attitude toward authority who frequently does the dumbest thing imaginable while being caught up in perilous situations. Although it's played for humor,  Jewell seemingly cannot keep his mouth shut during a sequence when he is being interviewed by the FBI, and his lawyer, Watson Bryant (a very good Sam Rockwell), becomes increasingly frustrated. It's almost as if the film is taking the line that Jewell is too incompetent to have been involved in such a dastardly plot, whereas his actual innocence is probably enough for the purposes of the film.

Even worse is the depiction of Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde), whose rather pernicious portrayal here can't be challenged by the person upon whom it is based because she died in 2001. The film's most controversial - and seemingly unfounded - scene involves Scruggs offering to sleep with FBI agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) in exchange for a scoop on a story. This sexist trope apparently has no basis in fact, and as a result the newspaper is challenging both Eastwood and Warner Bros. Both the brazen depiction of Scruggs and the sneering, villainous portrayal of Hamm's FBI man are both cartoonish, and the fault here does not appear to be with the actors, although one might question why Wilde would want to take such a role, based on how it's written.

I've never been particularly concerned about the historic record in most movies, unless it is distorted for egregious purposes. My thoughts are that if you want a history lesson, read a book, and that a film can take some liberties with historical events as long as they don't change the context of what happened in real life. "Richard Jewell" skirts that line several times - the depictions of other elements of the FBI's investigation have been questioned as well - and the result is a movie that is well enough acted, but somewhat questionable in motive and only moderately successful in delivery.

The case of Richard Jewell is, no doubt, a travesty - the man suffered for no reason, and yes, his investigators and the media were responsible for that. For those who might object to reviews focusing heavily on the political elements of the movie, that's something to take up with Eastwood and writer Billy Ray, who chose to tell this story in a particular way. "Richard Jewell" had potential to be a powerful movie about the wrong man being named a suspect in a case in which he was actually the hero. But it often comes across as a two-hour chant of "fake news" and a smear of the FBI.

This is a shame because there's some very good acting on display. Paul Walter Hauser, previously seen in "BlackKklansman" and "I, Tonya," gives an impressive lead performance as Jewell, who is well-intentioned but lacking in necessary survival instincts, while Kathy Bates is quite good as his mother and Rockwell steals all of the scenes he's in as Bryant. Eastwood's direction, as usual, is unfussy and impressive.

But the film's faults are too obvious, especially in how Jewell, his mother and his lawyer - considered the "good guys" - are depicted as sensible, decent people, while the journalists and FBI agents - considered the "bad guys" - all come across as frothing, loathsome people. Scenes in which Wilde's reporter gloats in the newsroom to wild applause from her co-workers is especially heavy handed. Eastwood has directed many films and many of them are very good. This one has some good ingredients, but they are overshadowed by its flaws.