After saving many lives at the 1996 bombing at Centennial Park, a security guard named Richard Jewell goes from hero to accused terrorist after a reporter publishes a flimsy story of circumstantial evidence that Jewell planted the bomb to be propagated as a hero.
What a disappointment. At least with a bad movie, it’s just bad and I can point out the awful things about it. There is evidence within it in addition to the disappointment. This is just wasted opportunity that should’ve been so much better than it was.
The acting was probably the strongest thing about the film, even though as a whole it isn’t that great, Sam Rockwell was easily the best part of the movie and was definitely a highlight. He put his all into it and you can really tell. It’s one of his better performances as a whole as well. Paul Walter Hauser had moments of greatness, mainly in the third act, but I feel like he mostly fell flat in some areas. Not a bad performance, but not amazing. I thought Kathy Bates was good but she’s been better (it certainly didn’t help that earlier today, I was watching parts of Misery). I think she had some high points, but mostly nothing special. Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm were fine, but again, both have been better. With the former being almost a caricature at points. The rest of the supporting cast was not very memorable.
The cinematography was very boring to look at. It was not very special and had a very beige look to it. It looks very similar to a lot of other modern Clint Eastwood films and that’s not a good thing. The pacing was what killed it for me personally. It was a slog to get through. Not as bad as Ad Astra but it was still unbearably slow. The overall tone just felt dry and stale. The editing in the first half also felt weirdly off and really choppy. It got better as time went on but it was still noticeably bad in the first act and still overall not very good. So with that, it’ll probably win an Oscar for Best Editing.
The story just felt kind of weak. It just, to me, felt like it didn’t need to be over 2 hours long. A lot of stuff could’ve been cut out. At the same time, it felt like necessary scenes and story beats were missing. That could be just due to the choppy editing, but it felt like stuff was missing while also leaving in unnecessary scenes, or just scenes that could’ve been done differently/shorter. It also got somewhat repetitive after a while. It just kinda felt like, okay we get Richard is being dragged through the mud just get on with it. However, despite this, the actual story regarding Richard Jewell is fascinating with how he went from hero to suspected terrorist. So that did keep me going throughout the film. The actual intrigue of that story regarding him. It could’ve been done WAY better, but it was still intriguing at certain points.
Overall, this was a very disappointing film. It felt very dry and stale, the editing was bad, the cinematography was bland, and the pacing was a slog. However, it was saved by above average acting, various highlights regarding the story and certain actors, and the intrigue of what happened with Richard Jewell.
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