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Say what you want about some of Clint Eastwood's recent output, the man delivers classic filmmaking and Juror #2 is no different. A cleanly shot and straight to the point courtroom drama about morals and justice, it feels like it could have been made anytime in the last seventy years.
Nicholas Hoult plays Justin Kemp, a four years sober alcoholic who is summoned for jury duty. He'd rather be at home with his heavily pregnant wife but is happy to do his duty until a slight wrinkle emerges; a man is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend but Justin may well of killed her in a hit and run a year ago. Knowing the accused is innocent, but not fancying spending the rest of his own life in jail, he tries to convince his fellow jurors to return a not guilty verdict while not implicating himself in the death. A task made harder on both ends by Toni Collette's hotshot prosecutor, determined to land the conviction that will secure her the District Attorney position, and fellow juror JK Simmons, a retired detective who starts to do some digging.
There are a couple of threads running through Juror #2. Has Collette's lawyer lost sight of justice in her quest for glory? Gabriel Basso's accused may be innocent of the murder but does he really deserve mercy? Really though, it's Justin's story and the movie is pinned on a fantastic central performance from Hoult who makes us really feel his dilemma. He is not a villain trying to get away with murder, rather an ordinary guy concealing the truth out of understandable self preservation. He genuinely spent the previous year thinking he hit a deer and his first inclination on learning the truth is to confess. He is talked out of this by his AA sponsor and lawyer Kiefer Sutherland who tells him circumstances (not least the fact he has a history of drink driving) mean he would be looking at a very long time in prison. Add in the fact his wife is stressed at being left alone due to her pregnancy being high risk and having previously lost twins and we can feel his tension emanating from the screen.
While the central conceit and character are delivered expertly there are other parts of the film that feel much more slap dash. Some of the dialogue is tin eared (pretty much all the interactions between Hoult and wife Zoey Deutch are sickeningly saccharine) and some of the other jurors are outrageously thin caricatures. We've got black guy who runs a youth centre and has "seen the damage gangs cause", young stoner guy, true crime obsessed women and sage older lady amongst others. None of these characters are massively important but something a little less cardboard cut out would have been nice and when the weak characters and dialogue combine the film can stumble and on occasion become outright annoying.
For the most part, the quality of the film making over rules the script's weaknesses and it's nice to see a glossy example of this increasingly rare genre on the big screen, even if the ending feels a little bit like the film is trying to have its cake and eat it. If this ends up being Clint's last film then it's a fitting conclusion to a career that has always been interested in justice and redemption. Then again, if he can release a film at 94 there's no reason he can't do it at 96.
7 neck tattoos out of 10
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