Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Richard Jewell’ on HBO, in Which Facts and Truth Collide, with Vulnerable People in the Middle

Tonight on Thinly Veiled Agenda Hour we have Richard Jewell, Clint Eastwood’s dramatization of real-life events that skew close to reality in some ways and far from it in some very specific others. Now on HBO, the film stirred up controversy during its late 2019 release for depicting late Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs as a floozy who schtupps an FBI agent in exchange for a tip about the primary suspect in the 1996 Centennial Park Olympic bombing. But maybe, just maybe, the movie is pretty good in spite of its hypocrisies, which would sure make everything complicated.

RICHARD JEWELL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Atlanta, 1986. Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) is an eager-to-please supply room clerk who pals up with lawyer Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell) by plying him with Snickers bars. There’s some legit friendship there, although after Richard quits to become a security guard, his first step to becoming a true law enforcement officer as he’s always dreamed, they don’t talk for 10 years — Watson’s the first guy Richard calls when he’s offered a book deal and then when he’s accused of a crime that could get him sent to death row. He just doesn’t know any other lawyers, I guess.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Richard’s stint with the sheriff’s department didn’t pan out, and neither does his gig as a security guard at Piedmont College. He’s an overly earnest type who likes to exert his authority in comical ways, and he has a cop-stache. He may be self-delusional, and a bit of a gun nut, and he’s in his 30s and very much a mama’s boy who lives with his mama, Bobi (Kathy Bates), and he’s also overweight and therefore ripe for bullying. So he’s a weirdo in a few endearing ways (earnest, loves his mama) and in a few off-putting ways (knows too much about homemade bombs, thinks he’s a cop when he isn’t).

His next paycheck is as a security guard at Centennial Park, where thousands gather for concerts during the Olympics. It’s not a bad gig, because one of the perks is taking his mama to see Kenny Rogers. He spots a strange-looking backpack under a bench, and the real cops on hand roll their eyes, reluctant to confirm his suspicions because he probably just wants to try to impress them and show them he can do things like a true officer of the law. But he’s right, and he’s among a group of men who manage to move people away from the thing before it explodes. He’s a hero, interviewed on the Today show and all that.

Meanwhile, in an office somewhere, Sam Rockwell talks with his mouth full of food, because I think he’s contractually obligated to do that in all his movies, possibly because it’s endlessly funny. He chews and swallows and talks to Richard about the hero-security-guard book deal he was offered. Elsewhere, FBI asshole Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm) lets slip that Richard is the prime suspect in the bombing, possibly because hardcase reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) has her hand on his bulge — all manner of scooping happened that night, it seems. He busts a nut and her story busts nationally. Richard is slapped with the “false hero” profile, he’s picked up by the feds, the media descends, his mom frets, Watson comes in to help. He didn’t do it. The evidence is flimsy. But it’s too late. The court of public opinion has made its decision.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Richard Jewell is a thoroughly compelling blend of American Sniper and Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Performance Worth Watching: Bates was Oscar-nominated for her role, probably because she gets a sobby, snot-snorting my-boy’s-life-has-been-ruined speech. But the movie absolutely hinges on Rockwell and Hauser, both of whom are damn funny, and the latter of whom captures the oddly endearing soul of the Jewell character.

Memorable Dialogue: Bobi expresses her concern when the FBI searches her and Richard’s apartment: “Watson — they’re emptyin’ my Tupperware.”

Sex and Skin: Just some implied nookie, which is not unimportant here.

Our Take: Eastwood is still a damn sturdy no-nonsense storyteller, and here he trusts his actors and some strong dialogue (courtesy screenwriter Billy Ray) to elevate Richard Jewell above the typically mundane based-on-a-true-story crud. Rockwell is great, Hauser is great, Bates is good, Hamm is fine and Wilde — well, she’s asked to do absurd things that not only shatter our suspension of disbelief, but also reveal Eastwood’s desire to paint journalists as a bunch of untrustworthy vampires (and also that the FBI kinda sucks, too). FAKE NEWS, the subtext screams as Scruggs’ newsroom colleagues applaud her endlessly for breaking a story that’s soon to ruin a man’s life. FAKE NEWS.

So Eastwood’s no-nonsense approach is purely visual and tonal, not thematic. Yet despite all this, we’re still able to glean a sense of the fine-line struggle to discern the difference between facts and truth — and sympathize with the man caught between them. That this idea makes its way through some grade-A horseflop is a small miracle.

The Scruggs thing is troubling, though. Ironically, this is a movie about how terrible defamation of character can be, and it participates in the defamation of character of someone who isn’t even alive to defend herself. By many accounts, the real Scruggs was a colorful personality similar to Wilde’s characterization, but too many assert that the notion she’d exchange sex for tips is an outright concoction. I understand the argument that Hollywood’s gonna Hollywood, and artistic license will forever inflate reality for the sake of entertainment. This is a medium in which actors play characters who speak written lines on fake sets beneath fake lights, so doing proper justice to actual events is ultimately irrelevant. This is historical fiction, emphasis on fiction. But here’s the rub: Why be so true to Jewell but not to Scruggs? Because you’ve been watching the Thinly Veiled Agenda Hour. Good night.

Our Call: It hurts a little to say STREAM IT, but the relatively small percentage of flawed malarkey in this movie ultimately doesn’t spoil some of its better elements.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Watch Richard Jewell on HBO