‘Juror #2’ Review

‘Juror #2’, the latest film from director Clint Eastwood, opens with journalist Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) showing his pregnant wife Ally (Zoey Deutch) the nursery he prepared for their coming baby. There is worry and sadness here, perhaps a past pregnancy gone wrong, and to soothe his wife’s concern Justin mentions that though he has jury duty coming up, he’s hopeful he won’t be selected and will be there for her.

The trial he participates in involves hot-shot lawyer Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette), hoping to get a high profile conviction that will secure her victory in the upcoming election for District Attorney. She is prosecuting a local low life named James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), who stands accused of murdering his girlfriend and is saddled with an overworked public defender.

Justin is, of course, selected for the case. And it’s not until the opening arguments that he starts thinking. As both the prosecutor and defense establish the facts of the case, the location, the date, the circumstances, Justin has a sickening realization that he was there that night. And furthermore, he feels sure that James Sythe is innocent.

The film doesn’t linger on the trial itself, with the jurors being sent to deliberate after about 30 minutes of runtime. The real drama the film seeks to explore is the relationship between the jurors, and how Justin wrestles with his conscience, figuring out how to advocate for the defendant without revealing how he knows what he does.

You’d be excused if you left this film after the opening 30 minutes, however, as the drama and conflict once Justin enters the jury room essentially boils down to a 90 minute back and forth on whether Justin is doing the right thing. There aren’t any additional twists or layers to the story, as the moral dilemma is largely the same at 2 hours as it was at 30 minutes: how do you prove another man’s innocence without placing yourself at the crime?

To be sure, there are attempts at bigger ideas here. There are lines of dialogue, some more elegant than others, highlighting how easily the criminal justice system can make mistakes; how oftentimes people will focus on gathering evidence against specific clients rather than objectively pursuing truth; how money and time are often not on the side of the defense. Yet these high minded ideas are frequently undermined by the melodramatic presentation of the courtroom and jury. Pretty much every juror can be thrown out for bias, all of them caricatures more than characters. The uphill battle Justin faces to convince his peers of Sythe’s innocence would be more dramatic and believable if he had to tear apart a rock solid case. But because the film only spends a brief amount of time on the trial, there are only a few pieces of circumstantial evidence he needs to disprove, so it’s not really clear why everybody else is so convinced of Sythe’s guilt.

Nicholas Hoult in the lead role is perfectly solid, expressing his internal conflict through facial expressions more than dialogue. The rest of the cast also performs well, including Collette as the prosecutor with a conscience, the only character in this Georgia setting who attempts a southern accent. JK Simmons appears briefly as a fellow juror with a secret of his own, and Chris Messina performs very well as the overworked and frustrated public defender, who turns to drinking because he knows there’s only so much he can do.

At 94 years old, Clint Eastwood has fallen into a steady rhythm as a director, delivering workmanlike stories that don’t push any boundaries, but guarantee an entertaining, middle of the road movie that will surely have mass appeal. And that’s exactly what he has done here: despite all of its flaws, ‘Juror #2’ is consistently watchable, even if it is destined to be forgotten in short order.

Juror #2
Rated PG-13 for some violent images and strong language.
Running Time: 1 hour and 54 minutes

Director Clint Eastwood
Writers Jonathan Abrams
Stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, Kiefer Sutherland
Rating PG-13
Running Time 114 Minutes
Genres Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller