Clint Eastwood’s directorial grip has loosened quite a bit in the last few years. Sully was the definition of the word ‘fine’ and The 15:17 To Paris was embarrassingly bad. Last year’s The Mule was somewhat decent, but I’d be lying if I said I remember anything from it.
Eastwood returns to our screens with another look into real events from our past. This time Eastwood has chosen the 1996 Atlanta bombing as his subject and specifically, the aftermath of that bombing. Security guard Richard Jewell discovered an abandoned back bag and reported it to the authorities. The bag contained a bomb, which detonated, but thank to Jewell’s actions, many people escaped the blast zone and only a few precious lives were lost on that fateful day instead of hundreds if the back bag hadn’t been found.
Eastwood explores how the FBI and especially the media treated Jewell, who went from a public hero to a public suspect almost overnight. Jewell, an overweight man living with his mother was thought to fit perfectly the profile of the hero bomber due to his failure to make it in law enforcement.
Richard Jewell is a film which runs on great performances. Paul Walter Hauser, best known for playing the terrifying, if daft KKK-member Ivanhoe in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, delivers a tragic performance as Jewell. Hauser lets the audience believe that Jewell is dumb and naïve, and just as the audience is about to lose hope in him, Hauser brings the character’s vulnerability and anger forth. There is a kindness to Jewell, innocence if you will, and Hauser brings it all out in his layered and sincere performance.
Equally great is Kathy Bates as Jewell’s mother. It’s a role that feels a little easy for a seasoned actress like Bates, it provides no challenge for a pro like her, but it’s a joy to watch regardless. Jon Hamm as the somewhat evil FBI agent Shaw, invented just for the film, is deliciously evil and makes you wonder why Hamm isn’t a bigger movie star.
Equally great is Sam Rockwell, who for once isn’t playing a racist character. He brings his signature energy to the screen in a role which seems to be his most tame performance in the last few years. Rockwell also infuses the film with much needed warmth and humour when the narrative seems to become too serious for its own good.
Sticking out like a sore thumb is Olivia Wilde. While everyone else keeps their characters grounded in reality and quiet devastation, Wilde is literally going wild as real-life journalist Kathy Scruggs, who first ‘exposes’ Jewell as an official suspect. Wilde’s character is poorly written, like a stereotypical career woman to be feared and despised, straight out an 80s erotic thriller. Scruggs unashamedly uses sex to get the story and she is played as an obnoxious hoax, who has very little journalistic integrity or moral backbone for that matter.
While Jewell seems like a nuanced take on the real-life person, Scruggs doesn’t even resemble a real human. She feels as if she belongs to a completely different film and her scenes often derail the entire film. Richard Jewell feels like a film that is constantly on the verge of greatness, but never quite finds its own identity.
The actual bombing scene is traumatic and a clear highlight of the film. While we return to it couple of times (a narrative choice Eastwood also employed in Sully), the initial incident is horrifying. Within seconds, the film becomes chaotic and terrifying. The entire scene is kinetic and leaves the viewer on the edge of their seat, but unfortunately no other scene really comes close to this level of mastery.
Richard Jewell is another fascinating film from Clint Eastwood, even if this also suffers from being too forgettable and generic to become a classic. Eastwood seems to still make very old school, almost clinically sanitised films, while audiences crave something much more raw and real. While there’s a certain charm to Richard Jewell, it doesn’t quite stick the landing, despite fantastic performances and Eastwood’s solid directing.
