●●●●○

The name Richard Jewell, though not an athlete, has become synonymous with the 1996 Olympics. Clint Eastwood’s retelling of the 1996 tragic bombing at Monument Park focuses not on the incident itself, but on the backlash against the guard who initially identified the suspicious package. With a script written by Billy Ray, and based on an article, ‘American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell’ by Marie Brenner, this film depicts troubling discrepancies between perception and the truth. Jewell is the security guard who raised the alarm and was commended as a hero until a desperate federal agency and a misinformed journalist leak a story which threatens his moral character, and his life.

 

Richard Jewell is not automatically a likeable character. Paul Walter Hauser delivers an engaging performance, capturing his strengths and his flaws equally. We get the definite sense that he is led by a strong moral compass, but he fulfills this need for justice in peculiar ways. The films sets us up to understand Jewell’s persona but also see when  his righteousness goes too far – as seen when he is fired from his job as a campus security officer for pulling cars over on a highway, where he has no jurisdiction. This false sense of bravado all but disappears when he is around higher levels of law enforcement. During the depiction of the fateful event, we see Jewell in a multitude of moods, from determinedly following a teen hastily moving through the crowds with a full backpack, only to start handing out beer to his friends. He is following a perceived handbook so closely that he is not differentiating between potential and legitimate danger. His eagerness, while saving countless lives, becomes his own downfall. 

 

His own knowledge becomes his own worst nightmare. We see agents rifling through and labeling his home in an attempt to find any scrap of evidence to link him to the tragedy, and we get a gut-wrenching jolt of empathy towards Kathy Bates’ character of Jewell’s mother when she beseeches the investigators to leave her personal effects alone. As the truth starts to emerge and the FBI’s case starts to crack, they attempt to link one of Jewell’s friends as an accomplice along with a blatant display of homophobia with crude suggestions towards their alleged relationship. Richard Jewell, however, is ultimately an intensely believable and begrudgingly likeable character who clearly gets caught up in his own good intentions.

 

Due to what is, ultimately, speculation, the media begins hounding Jewel and we see the once flattering reporters turn into hounds out for blood. What makes this film effective, however, are the powerhouse performances delivered by the cast. Kathy Bates delivers an impassioned and heartfelt performance as a mother desperately trying to hold onto her son’s bravado while assuring his innocence, as Jon Hamm delivers the character of a seedy underhand FBI agent with unshocking conviction. 

 

Richard Jewell is a fascinating tale about how the hysteria of mass media can not only wreak havoc on an ongoing investigation and cause public presumption, but can devastate a man’s life. Without knowing the historical facts of this event, one could be led to believe that we are slowly witnessing one man’s descent into madness and desire for mass violence. All the signs are there: over-eager desire to become and aid law enforcement, an inflated sense of self-importance and a loner attitude accompanied by a detached relationship with society. The FBI profile and indeed the media, which was initially filled with praise, suddenly transforms the titular character into a faux hero, and if we did not have the hindsight we are granted, we could easily get caught up in the tantalizing frenzy.

 

However, while this is an enjoyable film, some of the liberties taken by director Clint Eastwood go too far. This is supposedly a story steeped in truth, but its brash depiction of the journalist Kathy Skruggs (Olivia Wilde) falls short of the mark, and is, quite frankly, insulting. The notion that the late reporter traded sex in order to get a scoop is one that has met severe backlash, even causing Wilde to publicly state her lack of creative input into the script and the character. In a cautionary tale about the often irreparable damage that falsified media can do to a character, it is possible that this was an ill-fated oversight by Eastwood. 

 

Overcoming its flaws, Richard Jewell is a tale of bravery, heroism and a rapid descent from and ascent to grace – it is one definitely not to miss.

 

Richard Jewell is in Irish cinemas from January 31.