Trial by Jury Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Trial by Jury Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 11, 2020

Heywood Gould both wrote and directed Trial by Jury, his directorial follow-up to his debut picture One Good Cop. It's part Courtroom Drama, part Thriller, and not much in total. The film explores the high stakes world of jury tampering by way of mafia intimidation. The picture is not particularly adept at nuance, however, favoring a blunt instrument approach to its story, yielding a film that is both overly simplistic and quite unbelievable. It's a dull attempt at cheap thrills, giving up the more juicy courtroom theatrics and engaging scenes of jury deliberation in favor of cartoonish caricatures, including the sweaty, belching, obese judge; the slick mafia types; the determined attorney; and the homely but beautiful targeted juror.

Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) is a single soccer mom who loves her son and runs an antique clothing business. She's also a proud citizen who is excited at the opportunity to perform her civic duty when she's called to serve as one of twelve jurors in a high profile murder case with deep ties to the mafia. At the center of the trial is mob boss Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante). Prosecutor Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne) carefully selects his jury and is particularly impressed with Valerie's willingness to take on the task despite the inconvenience to her business and family life. The trial begins and Valerie is quickly deemed a mob target. On break from the trial while visiting her son at soccer practice, she's kidnapped and given an ultimatum: vote to acquit Pirone or watch her family suffer and die. Her every move is carefully scrutinized by a dirty cop (William Hurt) working for Piorne and, eventually, by Pirone himself, who grows infatuated with Valerie. Can the otherwise innocent and everyday woman withstand the mafia pressure, or will she do as she's told and hang the jury? Either way, there's seemingly no escape from a new life of deep, terrifying ties with the mafia.

This repetitive, unimaginative drivel offers no compelling entertainment either in the courtroom or in jury deliberations. Both of those ends are more comically inclined, albeit unintentionally so, with a slovenly judge and laughably rote procedural bits and pieces in the courtroom and clown-like jury behavior in deliberations when Valerie's dissenting vote ultimately yields snide comments and leads to full-out fisticuffs playing out in front of Valerie, depicted by Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, who watches as if staring at a boring pay-per-view WWE event. The cast is entirely disinterested and detached, going through the motions with little concern for the end product: and who can blame them? The material is cut-rate, serviceable at best, never ascending far above the bottom of the barrel, and certainly not aspiring to anything resembling A Few Good Men or 12 Angry Men.

The out-of-court thrills are where the movie butters its bread but there's not much of substance there, either. Such scenes revolve around the mob intimidating Valerie, coercing her to do its bidding in the deliberation room. The threats of force lack intensity or creativity, all the while two romantic subplots fester about when both Pirone's dirty cop Tommy Vesey, and Pirone himself, begin to develop feelings for -- or at least sexual attraction to -- Valerie. Of course she slyly uses this to her advantage, particularly in the film's final act, but there's a decided lack of intensity to what should be the movie's hottest, most dramatically charged and pulse-pounding scenes. Instead, Trial by Jury is guilty of failing to build tension, twists, or turns at every opportunity.

Trial by Jury Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Trial by Jury takes the Blu-ray oath with a so-so 1080p transfer. There is some intense wobble in play over the white-on-black opening titles, each of them moving quite severely. As the film opens, a number of pops and speckles litter the screen. These clear up in intensity but not really in frequency. Compression artifacts are infrequent but present in select shoots. Likewise, a few traces of edge enhancement are visible; look at an exterior establishing shot at the 1:12:45 mark. The picture is otherwise in good condition. Grain is retained but often with slight variations intensity, occasionally pushing to excessively clean and flat but never overtly processed or reduced. Textural complexities range from fair to flat. At its best, the image reveals capable facial, clothing, and location details with respectable command, but at its worst such elements fail to offer much depth or detail. Color are flat and dull, not overly faded but the film simply takes on a rather drab, unassuming palette. There's no brilliance to would-be punchy reds (restaurant booths, a red dress) while even natural greenery struggles to take firm command. Skin tones are decent, ditto blacks. This is a workmanlike image. It's grossly imperfect but also far from disaster. In a word, it's OK.

Trial by Jury Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack delivers a stable listening experience. While it lacks pinpoint clarity and the greater immersion additional channels would have provided, the two-channel experience is never lacking core instrumental, vocal, or environmental clarity. The presentation stretches the front side nicely enough, extending musical cues to the further edges. Instrumental detail is fine but listeners won't mistake the presentation for a live orchestra. There is some nice, gentle reverb as voices fill the courtroom scenes while modest city din helps set the stage for various locations as traffic passes by left and right or organic location elements filter through to relatively realistic effect. Soccer practice sounds filter through in chapter three with impressive space and clarity. The film is predominantly dialogue intensive, though, and as the chief audio component the presentation is vital to the soundtrack. It's clear and images nicely to the center area with no feel for drift to the middle or edges. Prioritization and clarity are just fine.

Trial by Jury Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sony's Blu-ray release of Trial by Jury contains one supplement: the film's Theatrical Trailer (1080p upscaled, ~4x3, 1:59). No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Trial by Jury Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Trial by Jury is a disappointingly flat, rote movie that fails to stretch its material or challenge its audience. The picture attempts to get by on blunt force storytelling, ditching any and all character or narrative subtlety in favor of crude maneuvers that get the job done but fail to offer anything remotely enticing or engaging. The cast doesn't give much of an effort, either, doing just enough to carry the movie but nothing to see it bear more than its limited value fruit. Sony's Blu-ray is equally uninspired. Midlevel video and audio offer but an acceptable A/V presentation. No extras beyond a trailer are included. Wait to buy until (if ever) it makes its way to the bargain bin.