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Very similar to a slightly superior film from two years earlier, Trial by Jury (1994), this psychological thriller is rote until it becomes positively awful by veering into the simmering, psychotic attraction between a mother and her criminal torturer. As the Mafia mastermind who manipulates a single mom juror, Alec Baldwin tries his best to portray the difficult mixture of suave sophistication and mentally unhinged that made Hannibal Lecter such a fascinating character. The screenplay is even adapted from the source novel by Ted Tally, Oscar winner for his The Silence of the Lambs (1991) script. If it's all a bit predictable and made-for-TV in tone, at least it works until Baldwin's character goes 'round the bend and becomes sexually obsessed with his prey. Demi Moore is convincing enough as a single mom desperate for a little excitement in her life, but the film becomes so absurd by its conclusion that her fate is of little interest. Director Brian Gibson uses blunt, obvious narrative devices to hammer home the film's weak suspense, most offensively in a pair of scenes involving a child and a woman's suicide. The advertising tag line for The Juror (1996) was "There is no defense." At last, truth in advertising.