"12": Classic jury drama with a post-Soviet twist

One of 2008's Academy Award nominees for best foreign-language film, "12" is director Nikita Mikhalkov's riveting take on "12 Angry Men," the classic teleplay-turned-screenplay by Reginald Rose that gave Sidney Lumet his acclaimed directorial debut (starring Henry Fonda) in 1957. In Mikhalkov's hands, Rose's rock-solid drama has been expertly conceived to reflect Russia's post-Soviet identity.

Gone is the cramped jury chamber that gave Lumet's film its claustrophobic intensity. Mikhalkov effectively replaces it with a decrepit school gymnasium, where a dozen Muscovites clash and combine in their effort to determine the guilt or innocence of a young Chechen accused of murdering his stepfather, a Russian army officer.

Without seeming overly schematic, Mikhalkov and his co-writers allow each of these jurors to represent a distinct thread in the fabric of modern Russian society. So when the first jury poll results in 11 votes of "guilty," the lone dissenter (the Fonda role in Lumet's film, here played by Sergei Makovetsky) is an engineer, calling for cautious attention to detail under grave circumstances. There's also a Harvard-educated TV producer (Yuri Stoyanov) representing Western influence, an anti-Semitic cabdriver clashing with an elderly Jew, a transit worker who hates all non-Russians, and so on.

Their heated deliberations turn into an all-night marathon of crime-scene re-enactment and provocative speculation, as each juror (all men, per Rose's original drama) reveals a personal back-story that affects their ultimate vote. Casting himself as the considerate jury foreman, Mikhalkov turns directorial confinement into a master-class of composition, performance and especially editing, as "12" crackles along for 2-½ hours that grab and hold your attention.

The film is slightly less effective in addressing (via flashbacks) the tragic, war-torn history of the accused Chechen, but even here "12" is vividly intense, with brief bursts of violence that recall "Children of Men" in its mind-rattling chaos. By returning to these scenes with increments of revelation, Mikhalkov (who recently finished a sequel to his 1994 Oscar-winner "Burnt by the Sun") withholds vital information right up to end. In assembling this puzzle from disparate parts, Mikhalkov suggests the hopeful rebuilding of his once- crumbling homeland.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net