Democrats and Republicans each can find something in this film to point out to each other though director Clint Eastwood sort of stacks the deck for the Conservatives. Based on a true story a viewer never knows what is true and what is imagined such as the reporter having sex with the FBI guy to get a story really true? The reporter is dead and the FBI man is really a mixture of a few people.

There is no falsehood behind the story of reporter Kathy Scruggs of the Atlantic-Journal Constitution naming Richard Jewell as the suspect in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia after he was hailed for being a hero when he found the bomb and alerted the authorities saving thousands of lives. Tom Broker, on NBC TV, also reports that Jewell is a suspect. We watch the FBI, and the media, tear apart the lives of both Jewell and his mother who he lives with.

Kathy Bates, as the mother, has two very strong scenes that would justify her being nominated for an Oscar while Sam Rockwell as the lawyer committing himself to clear Richard's name gives another one of his strong performances and Paul Walter Hauser as Richard Jewell gives a once in a lifetime performance and certainly deserves a lot of movie awards during award time!

The actors are the ones who make this movie with the screenplay Billy Ray a little too scattered and director Clint Eastwood seems to want to show that liberals don't run the movie business so we have a lot of unnecessary politics and wasted time.

I do recommend "Richard Sewell" for the aforementioned excellent performances plus what could be a realistic look at how a man's life could be ruined without substantial facts accusing him of something he hasn't done.