Not often in Hollywood have we witnessed as illustrious a career as that of Clint Eastwood’s. From starring in cinema classics such as Unforgiven, Dirty Harry, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly, to also directing additional classics such as Mystic River, Gran Torino, and the aforementioned Unforgiven, his latest work behind the camera, Juror #2, shows us that if this is truly Eastwood’s last foray behind the director’s chair, he goes out on top.
The HBO Max original comes 3 years after Eastwood’s previous entry, Cry Macho, and demonstrates that Eastwood can still tap in to that unique ability behind the lens to craft a wonderfully haunting portrayal of humanity and the inner struggle faced by ourselves and those around us. Eastwood, paired with writer Jonathan A. Abrams crafts one of the better political thrillers of the last few years that forces the audience to examine their own take on morality, self-transformation and competing ideals of what is good and what is just.
Weeks away from the birth of his child, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called for jury duty, doing whatever he can to get dismissed so that he can stay at home to assist his pregnant wife, he is (as we all dread) assigned as juror #2 in a murder case that quickly turns out infinitely more complicated than he ever signed up for. Sitting with eleven other jurors, Kemp is stuck between a rock – state prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collete) – and a hard place - public defender Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) – not to mention the implications of potentially sentencing a potentially innocent man to serving the rest of his life behind bars.
Killebrew, days away from a potential election win that would see her as the new DA, is saddled with the legal burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant James Michael Sythe murdered his girlfriend in cold blood. But as the evidence comes to light, and witness testimony is given, Kemp begins to piece together that a fateful night at a bar hoping to drown his sorrows, may have resulted in the very death that he being asked to render a verdict on. Drawing some direct influence from Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, Eastwood creates a story that allows for a few great character moments from the other jurors, legal team and those closest to the case.
Highlighting the every man and their struggles with their inner demons is something that I think that Eastwood is tremendous at conveying in his films. The story of the blue-collar security guard turned hero in Richard Jewell, an aspiring waitress turned boxer in Million Dollar Baby, even a retired horticulturist turned drug mule in The Mule – Eastwood demonstrates his ability to take the every day person, someone you might meet on the street and turn their seemingly simple life into a silver screen hit. Juror #2 is no different, portraying simple folk, in a small town, with middle-class run-of-the-mill problems – these are the situations and people that exist everywhere around us, we’re not being asked to suspend our disbelief, we are simply being asked to sit back and enjoy.
While it may overstay it’s run time by a few minutes and can be nitpicked on the accuracy of certain legal procedures and handlings in a courtroom, it is still worthy of associating itself with the tremendous line of work tied to the name of Clint Eastwood. With a great cast, and tremendous performance by Nicholas Hoult, Juror #2 earns its top spot on Max’s top 10 movies, and proves that while cinema still reigns supreme, occasionally, streaming can be a worthy opponent.
MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Runtime: 114 mins
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: Jonathan A. Abrams
Cast: Nicholas Hoult; Toni Collette; J.K. Simmons
Genre: Legal Drama | Crime
Tagline: Justice is Blind. Guilt Sees Everything.
Memorable Movie Quote: "We're only as sick as our secrets."
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Official Site:
Release Date: December 20, 2024
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: While serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial, a family man finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma, one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict or free the wrong killer.
