Verdicts are too important to be left up to juries, at least in the eyes of Rankin Fitch. Rankin Fitch is the top jury consultant in the entire country, a man you hire if you do not want to lose your case and take your chances with a jury. Rankin Fitch will do anything to acquire the outcome he wants from bribery, harassment, threatening, to blackmail and he always wins. That’s why with one of the most important cases coming up, one that could set a precedent throughout the entire legal process the defendants have brought in Rankin Fitch to make sure the jury votes for them. The case is against a gun-making corporation that is being held liable for one of their guns being used to slaughter 11 people from a disgruntled worker who obtained the gun illegally. Everything seems to going the way Rankin Fitch expects and plans tell all of a sudden someone else is tampering with the jury and seems to have the ability to push the jury anyway they want. At first Finch is skeptical he has never been beaten after all but it becomes clear very quickly that one of the jurors he selected is manipulating the jury from the inside. That juror being Nicholas Easter who with the help from his girlfriend on the outside Marlee seems to have the jury in hand and all they want for the verdict is ten million dollars. But Rankin Fitch didn’t get to be where he is without having a few tricks up his sleeve so in a game of cat and mouse the two will do battle to decide the outcome and verdict of the trial and maybe even their lives.

Some dramas are done in such a way that not only is it a game of cat and mouse on the screen but also a game for the audience to try and figure out what is going to happen. These are successful dramas because you have drawn in the audience to try and figure out where you are going and what you are trying to do. They make good movies because they succeed on several different levels and its always fun to try and solve a movie before the ending. That is one reason to like this movie another is the stellar cast they assembled for it. They brought in three of the better actors in Hollywood in John Cusack, Gene Hackman, and Dustin Hoffman to put on a performance that was spectacular at times. Even Rachel Weisz a less know actress did a great job at adding to the dynamic of the cast and adding an element that would have not been possible without her. The movie has everything from drama, to suspense, to thrills and even a little comedy mixed in. While the story is a little simplistic it’s the deliverance of the story that makes the movie excel and the movie does not fail to hit you hard at the end with a great little twist that makes you cheer for the good guys and root against the villains. If you are looking for a good drama that has a little of everything including a great cast this is the movie for you.
4 stars out of 5