The lure to serve on the jury in the Boffano mob trial is
double-edged for artist and single mother Annie Laird. "She is at a
point in her life where she's a little bored and looking for a
distraction," says Demi Moore, who stars as Annie. "Being a Juror
doesn't seem to be harmful and it will momentarily take her out of
what she perceives as her humdrum life. Annie also wants to set an
example for her son about being responsible and serving your
country."
During the jury selection process, Annie is evaluated not only
by the judge and attorneys, but by a lethal onlooker as well. "This
guy is like a rogue operator for the Mafia," says Alec Baldwin, who
stars as the mysterious figure known only as The Teacher. "He is
very adept at electronics and surveillance methods, and he's hired
by the mob to help them by selecting someone in the jury and using
that person to tamper with the jury."
The Teacher chooses Annie because "she's very passionate, and
he wants to use her passion to inspire these other people to let
this guy go, even though in their hearts they know that he is
guilty. She thinks very fast on her feet, too."
Adds director Brian Gibson: "On the surface Annie appears to
be a rather ineffectual person, but what nobody, not even Annie,
knows is that she has a diamondhard spirit inside. Even during her
few questions in the jury selection process, the Teacher sees that
there is something inside this woman that is very spirited and very
strong, and that is why he chooses her to be the one who's going to
turn the jury around."
The Boffano trial "starts the ball rolling in the relationship
between Annie and her son, and between her and the Teacher," says
producer Irwin Winkler. "The jury part of the story and the trial
part of the story is minor compared to the conflicts before and
afterwards. We don't spend that much time in the courtroom; it's
mostly what happens when Annie gets home."
According to Moore, Annie has put her social life on hold for
a variety of reasons, a fact which only increases her initial
vulnerability to the Teacher: "Because she is a single mother with a
son, she and Oliver have become everything to each other. They're
all that each of them has. To be both mother and father to Oliver,
she has negated the romantic part of herself, and when the Teacher
appears, he comes to represent the romantic possibilities which she
has neglected for so long."
Gibson adds: "She's a mother but she's also a little bit of a
father and she's also like a best friend. There's a dynamic that
goes on between the two of them which is amusing and interesting.
In Oliver, there's a need to be the man of the house, but being
twelve years of age he's not ready for it yet."
The Teacher sets a trap for Annie by using her work as an
artist as their initial point of contact. "She has been struggling
to both work and make her art when the Teacher comes along and buys
quite a few pieces of her art," Moore says. "He is like a stroke of
good luck, and also comes off as the kind of guy that she would love
to meet. He's intelligent, has a lot of different interests and an
excellent ability to communicate, and he's seductive because he uses
spiritual teachings as a means of guiding his life."
"She's been seduced into cooperating with this man by his
flattery of her art, and by believing that she's possibly falling in
love with somebody," Gibson explains. "So, when he reveals to her
the real reason for his interest in her, there's a deep violation
which echoes what happens to the rape victim who gets raped and
doesn't go to see the police afterwards because the humiliation of
what has been done to them is too private and too personal to reveal
to anybody."
Adds Moore: "It's a terrible betrayal because here is a woman
who hasn't wanted to open herself up to be vulnerable with a man and
then she finds somebody she's attracted to, opens herself up, and is
completely devastated to learn that he's really there for something
else. It becomes the beginning of a ride of absolute torment and
terror."
The spark of strength that the Teacher sees in Annie becomes
the core of their strange relationship. "They really become a
teacher and a pupil," Moore notes. "He pushes her to find the
strength and passion to turn the jury around, and he derives great
pleasure out of seeing her transform into the strong personality
that he knew existed within her all along. The chess game really
begins when she steps outside of the boundaries that he's designed
and takes action on her own."
Adds Baldwin: "He sees her as his Pygmalion, and that is fatal
flaw. The Teacher helps to bring out her inner strength and not
only does she succeed but in the course of succeeding she finds the
strength to eventually turn the tables on him."
"She becomes his primary student, his obsession, his love,
and she is absolutely
trapped, so any option is not an option. I think our instinct is
to believe that our judicial
system is pure and honorable and will protect us, but the Teacher
teaches Annie that this
isn't always the truth," Moore explains.
George Dawes Green, the writer of the book, sees the struggle,
epitomized by the two main characters, as one of chaos versus order.
But it's chaos that wins the author's sympathy and order that gains
his scrutiny. "Annie is groping in her life. Her house is a little
bit wild. She is just a little bit chaotic and confused ,as you can
see with her sculptures. She doesn't have any answers. She's not
coming out with philosophical edicts."
"And then there's the Teacher who believes that he understands
the keys to the universe," explains Green, "and I find these people
to be dangerous. These are people I don't like, people who think
they have answers. The people I love are the confused ones, the
ones that are just trying to get by and have no earthly idea of what
we're doing on this planet and don't pretend to."
The story, suggests Green, "is really about a war of love
versus structure. Annie's love for Oliver and his for her. The
Teacher thinks he has power because he has structure, he thinks he
knows all the answers, but he doesn't have love and ultimately that
is his downfall."
"I am very interested in this idea that one cannot escape
one's destiny," Gibson concludes. "The Teacher cannot put into play
all these evil acts and not be revisited one day by what he has
sown. So I was really interested in this concept of justice. Not
just the justice that does or does not happen in the courtroom, but
a kind of justice that looms larger than that."
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