Runaway Jury | pinartarhan.com

I went to see My Sister’s Keeper yesterday and I loved the movie. I hadn’t cried during a movie since Braveheart and that came out in 1995, so you can conclude that I don’t cry very often. I did not read the book. My friend was reading it but she told me the movie was coming soon and that Cameron Diaz was going to be in it so I waited for the movie instead.

I usually avoid dramas. Especially dramas that include cancer-stricken people. Cancer is a horrible, horrible disease. It can happen to anyone. As life is problematic and painful as it is, I prefer to use movies as a way of avoiding reality, thank you very much. Sure, great stories are told in dramas: Friendships, families, love stories, tragedies…But again movies that talk about and show cancer….You get my point. But this movie has a plot that hooked me- the moment I heard about who Anna was and what she was trying to do, I knew I had to know the whole story.

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Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) is a very smart 11-year-old. She has an older brother and sister, both teens. However she is different from them. Her older sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) has had cancer since she was very little. She would need transplants and blood and eventually a kidney from a perfect match. So her parents Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patrick) make a tube-baby: genetically engineered to be Kate’s match. So since Anna has been “used” to help her sister since she was born, she decides to draw the line at losing her kidney. She goes to see a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) so that she can make her own medical decisions. Although she loves her sister very much, it doesn’t feel good to have had serious operations from day one. Her mother is furious- and as a former lawyer-she will fight at court, against her daughter and her lawyer to be able to save her other daughter…

The story is told in several point of views: Anna’s, Sara’s, Brian’s, Jesse’s (the brother), Kate’s and the lawyer’s. It is hard to judge everyone when everyone seems to be right in their own right. Sara has let go of her career and everything else so she can take better care of Kate. Anna feels overwhelmed that if her sister hadn’t had cancer, she wouldn’t have been born and feels like her life means less. Jesse also seems to be drifting away…

Yeah, I cried. You have to see the movie to know what I mean. For a drama, it has an original plot and some good twists. The actors are really good. I am used to seeing Cameron more in comedies but she definitely can do an emotinally challenging role. Abigail and Sofia excel as the healthy and sick sisters.I like Alec Baldwin in small roles. Although he does seem to be playing the same person in different movies, I kow his lines are going to be interesting.

So as the credits are rolling and my friend and I are wiping off the tears, a guy comments on what a horrible movie it is. Now I had heard the same guy complain earlier but as the movie struck me completely and hear him comment again, loudly and rudely-all I can think is “What a jerk!What an insensitive jerk!” I also wondered if we had seen the same movie. Of course he has the perfect excuse not to like it. He has read the book. He thinks that a lot has been left out. OK-now, that brings us back to the arguement we all have when a book adaptation comes out to theaters. Most readers will hate it, some will think it is OK and some will actually like it. And the people who haven’t read the book and liked the movie will argue that both art forms should be judged in their own merits. I have been there. I loved Cold Mountain the movie. After I tried to read the book and I was disappointed. I read John Grisham’s Runaway Jury. I absolutely hated the movie. I didn’t like John Cusack as the lead (normally I like him but he just wasn’t the Nick in my head.), I hated the script and the changes and went on about how I should be the one making Grisham adaptations…

So what I am suggesting is- maybe a little unrealistically but only half-jokingly- the people who have read the book should be in a different theater and others in a different one. This will prevent both sides from giving spoilers, fighting over what’s good or bad and so on. Oh, of course the forums will be waiting for the discussions. But at least experience itself- the duration of the movie will be shared by people who have similar expectations. So you won’t have to dry your tears next to someone who is shouting “What a disaster!”….

I am not sure fans of Hemingway or Tolstoy will enjoy Grisham but millions of people love him nevertheless. His stories are captivating, original and hell- i think his name might be synoym for the concept page-turner.

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Even if you haven’t read him, you have probably watched or heard about the movie adaptations. The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A Time to Kill, Runaway Jury, The Client… to name a few. The movies always had major stars in them such as Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington (The Pelican Brief), Dustin Hoffman and John Cusack in The Runaway Jury and Chris O’ Donnel and Gene Hackman in The Rainmaker. The list goes on.

His paycheck for his second novel’ s (The Firm) was $6 million. The movie starred Tom Cruise.

So how did it happen? How did he become such a consecutive best-seller? How does he find so much material for so many books that are about lawyers and the law? Well, here it goes:

John Grisham is from Missisipi and is a lawyer. His first novel is A Time to Kill, though it was published after the success of The Firm. He worked the long hours at a law office. One day he witnessed a trial that practically changed his life.

A father’s young daughter had been raped and there was a chance the guilty party could walk away. John was a father too and he thought to himself that he would want to shoot the bastards dead. Hell, maybe he really would. So he imagined a story where the father was black, the girl was 10 and the rapists were white. He also imagined the father would shoot the guys- right at the trial. He also imagined a young white lawyer who took up the case and racist groups that made life difficult for everyone. And he wrote A Time to Kill. The movie features Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashley Judd and Kiefer Sutherland. It is a good book and a good movie that pays its respect. But funnily enough the books were rejected when John first sent it to publishers. He gave up after a while and wrote The Firm. This book went to print, and became a smash hit. After that, he didn’t have a hard time finding a publisher.

The path to building your career-no matter what the sector-involves a lot of failed expectations, unreturned calls and emails to job applications, bad intervies and well, hopeless moments. I believe trying to make it as a writer is even more difficult because rejection gets to be a part of your everyday life. Sometimes a project you are so fond of are going to be turned down. But just like you do not hit rock buttom and enter into the depression zone after a bad interview, you have to take it in and start working on something else. Grisham is one of the richest and most successful writers. I loved his books so much my dad seriously thought I should become a lawyer. My addiction to courtroom suspense started with him. I only dream about improving my penship so that I can become half the writer he is.

But there. You have a guy who managed to look after his family, produce a book in between 70 hour work weeks, handle rejection and write another book among that hectic work schedule. Wow!!!!

Now you have a guy, who takes cases when he wants, writes full time, who can afford anything he wants, and coaches baseball at his kid’s team. (Did I mention he wanted to be a baseball player when he was a kid himself ?)

So as far as idols go, Grisham is one of my heroes. Who are yours?

My Sister’s Keeper and Why Books’ Readers Should Be Kept Separate

People who screwed us over…in a good way.Part 2: John Grisham