Marked “Juror #2Clint Eastwood's final departure from the film business? Although the legal drama, which deals with morality and guilt, was widely advertised as the last work by the four-time Oscar-winning director (“Merciless”, “Million Dollar Baby”), the now 94-year-old filmmaker does not seem to want to slow down at all. Instead, there is already speculation that he is looking for new materials for future projects. But regardless of whether Clint Eastwood will take on a directing position again in the future or perhaps even appear in front of the camera himself again, the routinely staged “Juror #2”, which is peppered with excellent acting performances, would definitely be a worthy end to his impressive career.
Lifestyle writer Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), whose wife Allison (Zoey Deutch) is nine months pregnant, is called as a juror in a murder trial. James Sythe (Gabriel Basso) is accused of killing his girlfriend Kendall (Francesca Eastwood) and dumping her body in an urban canyon. The case seems clear, but public defender Erik Resnick (Chris Messina) is still convinced of his client's innocence. On the other side is the astute prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette), who is currently running for district attorney and therefore wants to successfully complete the case as quickly as possible. But then Justin realizes that he himself could have something to do with the case. After all, he himself had a small accident on the evening in question, in which he thought he had only hit a deer…
“Juror #2” is entirely in the tradition of such court classics as “The 12 Jurors”.
Many people find the social obligation to take part in a trial as a jury extremely annoying – an attitude that those appointed in “Juror #2” also express in different ways. Justin Kemp's initial goal is to come to a common opinion as quickly as possible so that he can be with his heavily pregnant wife again as soon as possible. But the situation takes a perfidious (and admittedly extremely unlikely) turn: the protagonist himself could be responsible for the crime the defendant is accused of. This makes the trial a highly personal matter and a moral dilemma for the eponymous juror.
Can and does he want to take responsibility for a potential hit-and-run, also in view of his heavily pregnant wife, of which he was previously unaware? Or should he at least do everything in his power to protect an innocent man who seems like a plausible perpetrator from a possible life sentence? The themes of guilt, morality and the question of the possible limits of justice have preoccupied director Clint Eastwood for decades. With “Juror #2”, which begins with a symbolic image of the blind Lady Justice, he now invites his audience to sit down as additional jurors in the court and deliberation room. You inevitably ask yourself how you would behave if you were the father-to-be.
Great theater
If you get involved with the somewhat twisted basic premise, “Juror #2” turns out to be an extraordinary variant of the classic courtroom film “The Twelve Jurors” by Sydney Lumet. Clint Eastwood once again presents experienced narrative cinema that makes you think: step by step he reveals more about his characters, all of whom are more ambivalent than they initially appear. Justin Kemp, sensitively embodied by Nicholas Hoult (“Nosferatu”), who at the beginning seems almost too much like the perfect father-to-be, is given unexpected facets as he carries out his inner struggle for the right course of action during the process. Eastwood gives his characters time, gets involved with their motivations and delivers an old-fashioned film in the best sense of the word that doesn't care about show values or sensationalist revelations, but instead puts its characters at the center. With this concentration on the essentials, Eastwood creates a drama that questions the functioning of the US justice system and illustrates the responsibility of the individual in society.
Cameraman Yves Bélanger (“The Big Trip – Wild”) repeatedly captures Justin’s face in close-up, while Nicholas Hoult expresses the protagonist’s inner conflict with nervous looks. He impressively conveys how the juror finds it increasingly difficult to keep his emotions under control. Hoult delivers a fine portrayal of a man who is constantly aware that his entire future is at stake if he does the supposedly right thing and reveals his secret. The performance of Toni Collette (“Hereditary”) is particularly impressive. As ambitious prosecutor Faith Killebrew, who is in the middle of a hot election campaign for district attorney, she sees the conviction of James Sythe as her key to career advancement.
Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette sat on a bench together 22 years ago in a famous scene from “About A Boy.”
But the longer the trial drags on, the more the prosecutor begins to doubt whether the prosecution has really targeted the right man. Collette masterfully portrays this uncertainty and the moral doubts that increasingly gnaw at her as her ethical compass is shaken. Collette appeared in front of the camera with Hoult 22 years ago in “About A Boy,” when her co-star was still a little boy. In “Juror #2” their few scenes together – be it a casual exchange of blows during jury selection or a central dialogue on a park bench – also prove to be special moments. Chris Messina (“Argo”) as a determined public defender and JK Simmons (“Red One”) as a juror who does his own research can also add their own touches to the top-class cast.
Conclusion: Despite the somewhat contrived premise, “Juror #2” is Clint Eastwood's return to form: the 94-year-old succeeds in creating a routine legal drama about morality and responsibility, which allows its characters to have ambivalences and breaks and features Tony Collette as a sharp prosecutor lets.