Courtney Howard // Film Critic
JUROR #2
Rated PG-13, 1 hour and 53 minutes
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Zoey Deutch, Toni Collette, Chris Messina, Gabriel Basso, Francesca Eastwood, J.K. Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland, Zele Avradopoulos
With JUROR #2, Clint Eastwood’s workmanlike direction proves to be one of this courtroom drama’s strongest assets. By valuing substance over style and character over contrivance, his straight-forward delivery of a story centered on an everyday man caught in an untenable situation wins over our heads and hearts, gifting us with a provocative exploration of moral and ethical ambiguity. The journeyman filmmaker’s light touch allows for screenwriter Jonathan Abrams’ material to immediately grab the audience’s attention, as well as letting tension mount, the riveting stakes to intensify and the performances to organically blossom. And by the time this compelling character study wraps, we’re thoroughly enthralled and entertained.
Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a good guy. He’s had his share of problems, struggling with grief, alcoholism and pesky DUI charges, but has done the work to take responsibility for his harmful actions by regularly attending Alcoholics Anonymous. He now has steady work, a nice house in the Georgia suburbs and a baby on the way with his very pregnant, very sweet wife Allison Crewson (Zoey Deutch). However, there’s one thing he hasn’t been able to completely rectify from his past: an accident on a dark and stormy night, when he was momentarily distracted and accidentally hit something with his car returning home from a rowdy roadhouse bar. He had assumed it was a deer, given the warning signs posted and the fact he couldn’t find whatever it was he hit. Yet a year later, when reporting for jury duty, Justin learns the truth about what actually happened that night.
Lowlife defendant James Sythe (Gabriel Basso) stands accused of murdering his girlfriend Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood) after the couple argued in the bar Justin was in that same evening – rage and rain spilling out into the muddy parking lot before the pair allegedly went their separate ways. Her badly bruised and bloody body was found the following day by a hiker in the creek below the bridge. What’s suspected by everyone – including prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) and public defender Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) – to be an open-and-shut domestic violence case becomes far more complicated once the jury begins to deliberate. Justin, forced into a corner by his dark secret, must convince the others not of James’ innocence, but that the case wasn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
If JUROR #2 winds up being Eastwood’s last as a director, the 94-year-old has crafted a finely-tuned 40th feature (or 41st if you credit his uncredited direction on DIRTY HARRY) as his finale, proving that his work remains as vital and vibrant as ever. 12 ANGRY MEN seems the likely comparison; however, Eastwood’s picture establishes its own unique identity. He and Abrams set up their “What Would You Do?” scenario with concise precision, then peel back the layers of the multifaceted events. Action is kept completely character motived as Justin’s precarious circumstances – whether it’s struggling with coming clean to his unwitting wife or figuring out how to help James without implicating himself – lead to other intriguing dilemmas that aren’t easily resolved. Suspense is slow-burning, building with each natural progression in the case. There’s also levity infused into the proceedings, from Justin’s lawyer friend (Kiefer Sutherland), who spends most of his brief screen time telling him he’s screwed, to the true-crime enthusiast (Zele Avradopoulos) on the jury, whose suggestions sound funny, but are smart.
Hoult’s sweet, kind face and the aw-shucks, sentimental demeanor he brings to his Jimmy Stewart-esque character garner rootability, despite his slippery, murky motives to taint the case’s outcome. Faith’s conundrum is also complex in that her dream job as District Attorney is on the line, giving her great internal conflict that Collette handles with restrained aplomb and shrewd strength. Deutch turns what’s typically a thankless role as the Wife Who Waits At Home into a well-fleshed out, dimensional character. She’s the beating heart of the picture as Justin’s True North. The scene with her and Hoult in their garage is heartbreaking, as their relationship dynamic is on full display with her vulnerability begging to be acknowledged as he struggles with the harm his honesty might bring.
There are, of course, a few silly asides that strain logic. That’s also part of the fun. It’s far-fetched that a former, out-of-state detective (J.K. Simmons) would be allowed to serve on a jury as he probably would’ve been jettisoned in the vetting process. It’s rationalized later, but it still requires a modicum of suspension of disbelief. It also seems ludicrous that the hit-and-run angle wouldn’t have been investigated thoroughly by looking at body shop damage reports. Still, we’re too invested in the story’s unfurling tribulations by that point, so we buy the excuse the filmmakers give that because of the accused’s prior criminal dealings, a fair shake wasn’t afforded him.
Aesthetically, Eastwood and cinematographer Yves Bélanger brilliantly engage with the concepts of light and dark that illustrate the protagonist’s guilty conscience. They utilize chiaroscuro (like when Justin shares his wife’s late night worries at the kitchen table), and pour diffused lighting into the jury room during moments of enlightenment (like when it appears Justin’s subtle sway is connecting with others and when it’s creating new problems). The unbalanced scales of justice are represented by a few transitional cutaway shots of the weathered courthouse statue, whose scales dangle up, down and around in the Southern breeze.
Grade: B+
JUROR #2 played at AFI Fest on October 27. It opens in limited release on November 1.
