Review: Mistrial

Rough-handling homicide cop Bill Pullman thinks he’s got a double cop-killer caught in Latino community activist Jon Seda. One of the officers was even Seda’s ex-wife. When he goes to arrest the man, things go screwy and Seda’s current wife and his brother end up dead in the shootout. The Latino community rallies behind Seda and wants Pullman’s head to roll, the DA (Roma Maffia) can’t really help him much, and it looks likely that Seda will walk, Pullman’s career will be in tatters. The burned-out cop cracks under the pressure, taking the judge (Roberta Maxwell, awfully wooden), the jury, and Seda hostage so that he can re-try the case – at gunpoint – with evidence that wasn’t allowed to be submitted. Robert Loggia and Casey Siemasko play Pullman’s boss and partner, Blair Underwood is the police negotiator, Kate Burton plays Pullman’s wife, Josef Sommer plays Seda’s needling attorney, and James Rebhorn plays the local mayor trying to stay the hell away from the mess but watching it unfold nonetheless in case he needs to make some kind of public statement.

 

Beware any HBO film featuring a cast full of people you’ve heard of and a director you’ve not immediately heard of. This 1996 courtroom/police thriller from writer-director Heywood Gould (who wrote “The Boys From Brazil” and “Cocktail”, apparently) has some good performances, but is pretty dumb and pretty inert. Also not helping things is that Bill Pullman is not the world’s greatest casting choice as the trigger-happy copper who starts to crack mentally under the pressure of being perceived as in the wrong. In the right role, Pullman can be solid and likeable but those roles are fairly few in my view. For the most part as an actor he alternates between hammy and wooden, and here he’s both at various times. Part of the problem is that Gould (in both of his behind the scenes roles) works with one heck of a large sledgehammer, subtlety is not this film’s strong point. However, I couldn’t help but think Pullman would be much more comfortable playing an idealistic lawyer or a lightweight politician. Those are his jam, not playing a rule-bending cop (Bill Paxton, Kurt Russell, or Michael Keaton would’ve been much better). He tries, at times too much and once he starts holding court and speechifyin’ you can see how much better he’d be playing a lawyer.

 

The underrated Jon Seda is mostly terrific however, as the potential killer. He’s equally convincing as someone possibly innocent and possibly guilty, though unfortunately once again Mr. Gould comes along with his huge sledgehammer to make it pretty obvious a little too early on which side of the fence he’s on. So that’s a shame, with Seda given no choice but to show his hand at that point. Still, it’s mostly a plus from him. In support, the always terrific Robert Loggia, Casey Siemaszko (another underrated actor), Josef Sommer (ditto), Roma Maffia, and a perfectly cast James Rebhorn all do their best to ground the film. Blair Underwood (sans hair) is a good choice as the police negotiator, but his role ends up miniscule and surprisingly not very important. Why was he even brought in when Loggia ends up doing most of the talking anyway? Meanwhile, the first 40 minutes are a “Law & Order” episode and then it decides to go all nutty on us. The problem is that Pullman’s breakdown comes with not enough build-up. We’re not given enough of an idea of how Seda and Sommer have pushed Pullman so far over the edge. It leaves Pullman with an impossible task and a gaping hole in the film. It doesn’t help that in conjunction with the way Seda has been directed, Pullman’s very casting leads you to figure out how this will end up. Like I said, Gould fouls it up, too many reaction shots revealing too much too soon.

 

A film that would be dangerous if it weren’t so dumb. A wonderful array of character actors and a miscast Bill Pullman are left adrift in a ham-fisted, overwrought film that gives the game away early and often. The title also doesn’t remotely apply to the film. A dud, with the kind of story you can get on a one-hour TV show now – only better than this.

 

Rating: C-