Arts

Film: The Runaway Jury

And so to Margate's one cinema (the final operating business of the once great Dreamland / Benbom Bros theme park) for an evening's unwind.

I've been looking forward to The Runaway Jury for a while now. After all, it's John Grisham's best novel (I've read most of them, and this is the only one to really stand out), and once you've cast Rachel Weisz, John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman you've pretty much got it in the bag.

As with all adaptations there's been a fair amount of story-mangling. For a start, it is the gun manufacturers who are on trial rather than the tobacco companies of the book (and maybe to acknowledge this change, pretty much John Cusack's first line is "you should stop smoking; it'll kill you").

The jury, and the parties determined to swing the jury in their favour are the real core of the story, and here the film doesn't disappoint. In fact at times, there's so much focus on the jury that you wonder if there was any substance to the trial at all. Maybe that's the point, but personally I was saddened at what appeared to be a slightly wasted opportunity to explore gun manufacturers should carry more responsibility for their product.

Minor quibbles aside, this is a wonderful thriller. A cracking, original story and a stellar cast.