Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Marie Brenner (magazine article) and Billy Ray (screenplay) 
Starring Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Kathy Bates and Jon Hamm
Running Time: 2 hours and 9 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for language including some sexual references, and brief bloody images

by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport

“I don’t want any Mickey Mousing around on these grounds.”

There is a lot I loved about the nineties (hello! 👋 Blink-182 fans) including: those colorful swishy track suits, stirrup pants, my pencil box and scrunchies. However, the Macarena song doesn't make the cut. That song was very much NO and was the last thing I expected to hear in Richard Jewell.. but it truly is a 90s staple.

Since that whole incident with the chair “movie tradesman” Clint Eastwood’s big screen releases have more than fallen off my radar… they have been actively avoided. There was a time in my life in which my partner in crime, MJ’s Best Boy and I were seeking out movies featuring Clinty. We had stumbled upon this low-priced dvd four-pack and couldn’t resist the idea of our lives not experiencing the Good, The Bad and Ugly star palling around with an orangutan (part of the Monkey genre, also see Dunston Checks In). So we purchased it and the term, “Clintity” was born; a movie categorized as a Clint Eastwood comedy. We worked our way through the Dirty Harry series, that musical thing and Million Dollar Baby. But then we saw Gran Torino, Flags of Our Fathers and the terribly lit J. Edgar. I had my fill. 

The Richard Jewell trailer sucked me back into the Clint vortex. I give credit to Paul Walter Hauser for my interest, though, as I enjoyed his portrayal in I, Tonya as Shawn, Jeff Gillooly’s BFF. Jewell’s story, in particular, also appealed to me. The two minute teaser had me recall bits of information about the notorious bombing in the Atlanta park during the Olympic games of 1996. As a twelve year old, I remember being fascinated that one moment someone was being called a hero and then just days later being named a criminal. There was a lot of chatter about this news story until there wasn’t. Honestly, I never thought much of it afterwards and I suppose if someone would have asked me if Richard Jewell was responsible for the attack, I would have responded with a definitive Y-E-S. With this film, it seems Clint Eastwood hopes to set the record straight.

Overall, there is nothing spectacular about this movie. The performances are fine except, to my surprise, Olivia Wilde as late journalist Kathy Scruggs. I believe the story does a good job of pointing out how a person’s life can be turned upside down by a reckless media and law enforcers that are pressured to close cases in lieu of actually solving them. What it does poorly is depicting Scruggs and her methods of investigative journalism. I have a hard time believing she was that much of a sleaze merchant. The yarn spun by writer, Billy Ray (most notable Shattered Glass and then a bunch of other scripts that have zillions of writers attached such as: Gemini Man, Terminator Dark Fate) is that the only way this woman got a scoop was between the sheets. Not only was she portrayed as shamelessly admitting this but, she also seems to lack a soul. I don’t know… maybe this is true? Either way, by the end of the flick she must have found God (?), because after a moving scene in which Jewell’s mother, Bobi (Kathy Bates) proclaims her son’s innocence in a press conference, the journalist is seen in the back of the room crying. 

On a positive note, it was nice to see Sam Rockwell taking a break from the racist characters (such as this or this and that) that he seems to have gotten rather comfortable portraying. In Richard Jewell, I found Rockwell’s depiction as Jewell’s acquaintance turned lawyer, Watson Bryant to be charming. The friendship Bryant had with Jewell and the banter with his paralegal Nadya (Nina Arianda) were bright spots of the film. The story opens in 1986, ten years prior to the bombing at Centennial Park. This is the moment in time when Jewell and Bryant meet. They worked together at a law office of sorts. Jewell serving as an office lackey, aka bringer of supplies, that had a fondness for what some may deem snooping. For Richard acquiring knowledge from your trash, such as deducing from empty wrappers your affinity for Snickers candy bars is only being efficient at your job. 

When Richard decided to leave this position, seeking a career in law enforcement, it was the Snickers that would always keep the friendship with Bryant alive. When we flash to 1996, we now find Richard working at a college in campus security, clearly taking the job more serious than what his badge implies, inevitably costing him the position. When Richard answers the call for temporary security in Atlanta during the Olympic Games, the film takes the viewer on a step by step walk through of the night’s events leading up to the explosion. This is the moment that the film kicks into high gear and Richard’s mundane life spins out of control. 

Two things happened when I left the cinema: one, I still don’t care about anything Jon Hamm is doing and two, I wondered what inspired Eastwood to tell this story. My only theory is that he has now succumbed to toilet cinema. What I mean by this is that when you take a look at the latest flicks in his filmography such as, The Mule, American Sniper and Sully he seems to have a thing for reading on the pot, particularly books, periodicals and magazine articles. Especially the stories of men that have been wronged by the media and morphed into false heroes. Picture it! Clint bellowing from a washroom (Canadian for bathroom), “Hey! Get me the producers from Warner Brothers on the line… I found my next picture!”

Regardless, I found Richard Jewell a worthwhile tale to tell. My main gripe is that I could have done without the caricature depiction of the journo. I also wish that during the revelatory scene Sam Rockwell has at the payphone (oh yeaaaaa 90s) that the infamous bomber used to make the 911 call regarding the bomb in the park, that Sam was eating a snickers. It would have made his line, “This kid is gettin’ rail-roaded, this kid is gettin’ rail-roaded… I’m gonna help this guy,” so much more impactful.