La stanza dei giurati

I'm biased. I like good courtroom dramas. This is a good one. But it also gives a tremendous insight into what really goes on in the jury room. Fully half the film covers the jury deliberations yet it does not drag for a moment. I have one large complaint and that is the fact that Toronto again has allowed itself to be prostituted as the setting for an American city. Toronto's pretensions of being a "world class city" are worthless so long as this sort of cinematic pimping continues. Is there any other major city in the world (outside Canada) that demeans itself in this manner. London is always London. New York is New York. But Toronto invariably is Cincinatti or Boston. It's especially upsetting since CTV was one of the backers of this movie. It's especially obscene to see the US flag flying in front of the Canadian Government offices on Front Street. Having said that, it's still a compelling movie, well scripted and well produced with some excellent performances

What I liked about the movie was seeing the jury process in motion. Having never served on a jury, it was good to see the process portrayed as being "by the law", and the fact that there are twelve people there - each keeping the other in line. But the commercial breaks on the Lifetime Channel are distracting and the ending never gave you what I call a conclusion. It did keep my husband awake though, and he said if I was going to watch Lifetime, he was going to take a nap. :-)

Really entertaining.... extremely well directed and acted drama - definitely in the style of not only 12 Angry Men but many 50's and 60's dramas. I can't say that it was as good though but I thought it really worth watching and refreshing considering the majority of movies that are produced these days, with their focus on effects and shock. I appreciated the how the filmmakers allowed the drama to breathe; not to clutter up the energy with a lot of quick cuts to create a false sense of drama. All the drama here is created with situation, great words, good acting. I have to agree in part with the other comment about Toronto acting as an American City. Why bother? Have to say though - isn't it a bit cliché to have the Latino guy as the macho jerk? I had a few problems with the stereotyping and tokenism: ie: one Black man, one hip talking black woman, one of oriental background, another obvious female lib type, and even the clean cut businessman type who has affairs behind his wife's back. This might have worked in the 50's or 60's but no more.

Quite an entertaining little film as long as you don't look too closely at the facts. The cast all did their best to keep the story flowing. Several interesting characters involved, though, in my opinion, most bigoted people are not prepared to change their minds as easily as these seem to do. DOWNSIDE: If this is typical of the American Jury system the only comment I can make is "Good Luck". The trial seemed a farce, no-one even asked who the gun actually belonged to, the jury had to guess whether it was his or hers. The post-trial jurists publicity with interviews etc. I found abhorrent and open to misuse and retaliation.

I so enjoyed her in this as a "sharp but understated" character. Kelly Mcgillis, Lauren Hutton, Christopher Plummer....why is this thing not available on DVD and VIDEO? Anyway, a really compelling storyline, well-written, well-acted, well-directed. I loved the characterizations and the way the Jurors' relationships enmeshed and intensified. Did I say I loved it? Can you tell?

I have to add four more lines to submit this comment, actually never before have I been asked to lengthen an email! Oh well, sure. My favorite line from the movie is "She's a STONE KEELER!". This would be a great movie for COURT TV--maybe they could even do a sequel!

But definitely this movie needs to be OUT THERE more--I think I saw it on LIFETIME NETWORK once but thats about it recently.