Clint Eastwood's final film delivers a fresh and thought-provoking courtroom thriller exploring moral ambiguity with a stellar Nicholas Hoult.
Clint Eastwood, in what he says to be his final film, has created an intelligent and thought-provoking thriller that is sure to ignite conversations on the moral conundrum Juror #2 presents. If you haven’t watched the trailer, don’t watch it. It gives away the best part of the movie. Instead, think of it as a twisty remake of 12 Angry Men (one of the greatest movie scripts ever). And dive right in.
The case in hand is fairly simple. A girl is found dead and her boyfriend is accused of murder. The only problem is, the prosecution’s entire case stands on hearsay. Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette, uncharacteristically average) makes a big whoop of the flimsy pieces that hold her case together, being sure the man convicted is the murderer. She has been exposed to enough domestic violence cases to know, people never change. On the other side, we have Erik Resnik (Chris Messina, being sensitive and well-intentioned) who is equally convinced of his client’s innocence. You can see why since, there are no witnesses to the crime, no physical evidence eliminating reasonable doubt, and his client professing undying love for his deceased partner.
If you’ve seen shows like People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, then you know jurors don’t always make practical decisions. Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult, check out reviews of Nosferatu and The Order from 2024) is Juror #2, our observer to the proceedings. But he’s much more than an observer.
Confident about the suspect’s innocence, Justin requests his fellow jurors to, at the very least, discuss the case before convicting the man. This scene is nearly identical to the one in the classic, with unique iterations, and seeing the movie lead up to it is riveting. He riles enough emotion to get Harold Chicowski (ever reliable, J.K. Simmons), an ex-cop, to voice out his instincts about the case. He knows the errors that take place along the way in an average police investigation and how witnesses can unwittingly be manipulated. Chicowski takes our hero and the movie on an intriguing and original pathway.
Allison (Zoey Deutch, a star in the making), a school teacher married to Justin, is pregnant and requires her husband to be there for her but being a juror on this case is weighing him down. He grows distant and quieter than usual. As someone not in control of the events happening around him that can have very real consequences, Nicholas Hoult has given an empathetic performance devoid of theatricality or fireworks.
As his swan song, Clint Eastwood has chosen a deceptively simple story, that stands on an incredible script written by Jonathan Abrams. Veteran editor Joel Cox who’s Eastwood’s frequent collaborator adds a deeper layer to the story, especially during the first half when the court proceedings merge with actual events. Juror #2 is an edge-of-the-seat experience seldom had where your relationship with the main character continues to evolve as the movie continues. The movie also touts one of the best movie endings of 2024. It is a fresh take on the courtroom drama genre that shows there are plenty of avenues yet to be explored in cinematic story-telling in this genre.
Justin Kemp – ‘You know, this is someone’s life we’re dealing with. Shouldn’t we at least talk about it?’
Yolanda – ‘This is a joke.’
Justin Kemp – ‘No, it’s, um.. look, it’s a deliberation. You are ready to send this man to prison, maybe forever, just like that?’