*** out of ****
On a talk show in the mid-‘70s, Orson Welles was asked who was the finest American filmmaker of that moment. His response: Clint Eastwood. This remark astonished me because there was so many masters working in that time and I suppose I had saddled Clint off to the side, not really taking him seriously because of his gruff, tough-guy persona in his Westerns. Also, the first films directed by Eastwood I saw were from his curiously award-winning, but aesthetically lean years of manipulative tear-jerkers like Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. But, In the last several years, Eastwood has continued entertaining and asking big questions in quiet, mannered movies about everyday people, the best example of this was 2019’s Richard Jewell, an underrated biopic about an average American man wronged.
His latest film, Juror # 2, is a film whose principal theme is justice—all of its ins and outs, especially doing the right thing when it’s impossible. People don’t make movies about justice, honor, or duty anymore. But Eastwood does—with little judgement and even less sentimentality.
It is surprising that Juror # 2 is not based on some legal potboiler novel of the John Grisham variety. Often those properties turn out much better films than they do books, and they are often like this film: suspenseful, dramatic, set in some sultry Southern courtroom. Alas, the film uses an original screenplay by Jonathan Abrams, set in Georgia a few years ago, and concerns journalist (and recovered alcoholic) Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) as he succumbs to jury duty on a case in which he is deeply and ironically involved.
At home, his life is quiet, contemplative. He and his wife are at the tail-end of a high-risk pregnancy (after already failing in a past attempt) and not even this fact sways the judge against his being able to serve. It is to walk a delicate tight-rope to say much more regarding the plot (even though the secret is revealed early on), so it will suffice to say the case is prosecuted by an appropriately accented and always professional Toni Colette and the defense is headed by Chris Messina (who gave the best performance in Air from 2023 and is equally marvelous here). J. K. Simmons appears in a small part as a juror who begins doing his own investigation (no one ever asked if he was a cop) and Kemp is most certainly doing not only investigative work, but deep soul searching.
Familiar faces that appear include Kiefer Sutherland in a somewhat thankless part that sort of fizzles out in terms of importance. This is always the tasking part of watching an Eastwood film. Making films the way he does (usually only filming one shot so he can get to the golf club before it closes), he has never been particularly good at trimming the fat in his movies. They have a lackadaisical feel in their pace, and yet, because Juror # 2 has the requisite thrills and moments of suspense that justly accompany a legal thriller, these minor hiccups are forgivable.
Eastwood brilliantly directs the various versions of the inciting incident to the murder by being true to what is being said by whoever is on the witness stand. By not showing off much at all, his camera is surprisingly effective in the genre though the film is not really about a trial; it’s about doing the right thing, sometimes the hardest act one can accomplish.
Perhaps Juror # 2 will be counted among Eastwood’s more minor pictures, but it is a good one, built with good bones in its structure and with strong performances of grounded, realistic characters. It is currently streaming on Max.
Juror # 2
Warner Bros. Pictures, Dichotomy Films, Malpaso Productions
Nicholas Hoult as Justin Kemp
Toni Collette as Faith Killebrew
J. K. Simmons as Harold Chicowski
Chris Messina as Eric Resnick
Zoey Deutch as Allison “Ally” Crewson
Kiefer Sutherland as Larry Lasker
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Screenplay by Jonathan Abrams
Produced by Clint Eastwood, Tim Moore, Jessica Meier, Adam Goodman, and Matt Skiena
Photography Yves Bélanger
Edited by Joel and David Cox
Music Composed by Mark Mancina
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