Juror #2

2024's JUROR #2 is likely the last of Clint Eastwood's directorial efforts before he retires.  I'd say he's earned the rest.  Only Woody Allen was more prolific.  I haven't seen them all, especially the recent ones.  I'll probably get to them sometime.  But this one, besides for the likely historic reasons, grabbed my attention for its potential task taking of the whole juror process.  One I was always skeptical of and alarmed by.  Would you want your fate determined by John Q. Citizen? Especially these days, when the extent of reading for many is the headline of an article on social media? I served on two juries, luckily neither a murder trial, and my fellow decision makers were largely reasonable.   That was several years ago.

Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), a magazine writer and soon-to-be dad, gets picked for the case of a young woman named Kendall Carter (played by Eastwood's daughter Francesca), who died a year earlier, found on the rocks under a bridge.  Right after her fight outside a bar with her boyfriend James (Gabriel Basso), the accused.  It wasn't their first dust up.  James is revealed to have a history of violence, which only serves to confirm the jurors' opinion of his guilt.  Justin's?

We will learn Justin was also at Rowdy's Hideaway that night, tempted to relapse in his alcoholism.  He orders a drink, but does not relent.  On the drive home on a rainy night, he hits something on that bridge.  He thought it was a deer.  A new, terrible realization.  A hell of a moral dilemma.

Jonathan Abrams' screenplay thoughtfully develops this ripe premise.  Sometimes predictably, and Eastwood gives us those familiar moments when someone who might recognize Justin (or his guilt) prompts a distraction: ducking in his chair, dropping a stack of paperwork.  The director again provides a solid, earnest, and workmanlike approach.  Visually, the film is unremarkable.  Eastwood was never one for flash.  And his film is as inoffensive as an episode of Matlock.

But JUROR #2 does touch upon complex themes and how one's past can determine their destiny.  How circumstances can tell everything but the truth.  Justin's attorney friend (and A.A. sponsor) Lary (Kiefer Sutherland) perhaps rightly surmises that his coming forward would lead to his conviction.  That having been in a bar and ordering a drink (coupled with his history) would be enough to convince anyone he was drunk that night.  People think in black and white.  One must be guilty because appearances make it so.  And when you have a weary juror who wants to get home to his or her family? A guilty verdict just gets the damned thing over with.  That's our system.

Hoult is fine in the lead, though to me it was obvious he studied several Tom Cruise performances (notably THE FIRM).  Toni Collette is perfectly cast as Faith Killebrew, the Asst. D.A.  Much of the remainder of the cast are unimpressive.  Several of Justin's fellow jurors level of acting is about community theater level. Not included in that summation is the always reliable J.K. Simmons, who plays a former detective who begins to have some doubts.   Abrams' script is good but certainly no 12 ANGRY MEN, which was a clear inspiration.