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The Juror
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The Juror is a 1996 film directed by Brian Gibson and starring Demi Moore as Annie Laird, a single mother, picked for jury duty on a Mafia trial. She is forced to persuade her fellow jurors to vote "not guilty" by "the Teacher," who threatens to kill her son. When the trial is over, however, he cannot seem to let her go. The film was released on February 2, 1996.
Plot
Annie Laird (Demi Moore) is a sculptor who lives in New York, with her son Oliver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
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Encyclopedia
The Juror is a 1996 film directed by Brian Gibson and starring Demi Moore as Annie Laird, a single mother, picked for jury duty on a Mafia trial. She is forced to persuade her fellow jurors to vote "not guilty" by "the Teacher," who threatens to kill her son. When the trial is over, however, he cannot seem to let her go. The film was released on February 2, 1996.
Plot
Annie Laird (Demi Moore) is a sculptor who lives in New York, with her son Oliver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Annie works a day job as a data-entry clerk. Oliver has a crush on Annie's friend Juliet (Ann Heche), who has a son named Jesse (Brett Barsky).
Annie is selected to be one of the jurors in the trial of mob boss Louie Boffano (Tony Lo Bianco) who is accused of ordering the murders of Salvador Riggio and Salvador's grandson Thomas Riggio (Joseph Perrino).
Annie soon meets a man named Mark Cordell (Alec Baldwin). After Mark buys some of Annie's artwork, he wines and dines her, and then Annie discovers that Mark is better known as "The Teacher" -- he's Louie's enforcer, and the material perpetrator of the hit job for which Louie is being prosecuted. Mark tells Annie to convince the jury to acquit Louie, or else Oliver, Juliet, and Jesse will all die.
An extremely frightened Annie does convince the jury to acquit Louie. After the trial, Louie wonders if maybe Annie should disappear, because Louie sees Annie as a loose end. But Mark has a problem with that. He seems to have developed feelings for Annie, or perhaps an obsession. In order to exert further pressure on her, Mark goes after Juliet, who we discover has been Mark's lover. After the two have sex, Mark reveals himself to Juliet as Annie's stalker. Mark pulls his gun and forces Juliet to swallow poison pills one by one, until she dies an agonizing death. Mark later boasts, implicitly, of Juliet's murder when speaking to his partner Eddie (James Gandolfini), whose immediate understanding and slightly unsettled reaction suggest that this behavior is not at all unusual in Mark. Eddie, we learn, is disgusted with Mark's sadistic nature, and so he later helps Annie, telling her that he also has a child and understands her dedication to protecting her son.
Desperate, Annie hides Oliver in T'ui Cuch, Guatemala with her friend Boone (Matt Craven). At the same time, the DA wants Annie to turn state's witness so they can go after Mark, who now plans to take over Louie's empire with the help of South American drug dealers. When the DA's office has her wear a wire, Annie gets Mark to incriminate himself in a boastful rant on his ambitions. She then uses the tape to tip off Louie to Mark's plans and Louie schedules a meeting to deal with Mark.
Eddie arranges the meeting, obviously intended to be an execution. It provides further evidence qualifying Mark as an intelligent psychopath; he escapes unharmed, killing Louie and Louie's son Joseph (Michael Rispoli), along with all the henchmen present. Furious at Annie and Eddie for setting him up, he slashes Eddie's throat and calls Annie from Eddie's house, revealing his knowledge of her son's whereabouts and his intention to travel to Guatemala to kill him.
When Mark arrives there, there is a showdown between Annie and Mark as he threatens to kill Oliver. A native arrives with a rifle and shoots Mark. Annie reluctantly kills the wounded Mark to ensure the safety of her son.
Similar Film Basis
A nearly identical circumstance befalls juror Joanna Whalley in the Heywood Gould film "Trial by Jury" (1994), based on a book by novelist Jordan Katz. But here Alec Baldwin's character is the focus, whereas "Trial By Jury" divides the role between ex-cop William Hurt and gangster Armand Assante.
Cast
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