REVIEW: "Juror #2" (2024)

WRITER'S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on November 11, 2024. 

The latest directorial effort from Clint Eastwood—a stirring courtroom drama and complex character study—may reportedly be the 94-year-old filmmaker/screen icon’s last. It’s kind of a pity that it’s only been getting a limited release in theaters, because it’s a superb achievement. (I attended a screening at the AMC in Edina last week, the only theater in the Twin Cities that’s showing it.) To get right to the point, Juror #2 is one of the year’s most gripping, riveting, and challenging films. 

Brilliantly written by Jonathan Abrams, the story follows a man named Justin Kemp, a recovering alcoholic with a wife expecting their first child any day now. When he’s called for jury duty in a case in Georgia, centered around an alleged homicide, what follows are some startling and morally ambiguous revelations as to whether Kemp may or may not have a secret connection to the case. 

The film features a stellar cast, headed by Nicholas Hoult, who subtly and brilliantly conveys the moral dilemmas of a guilt-stricken man, including what he says and doesn’t say, especially when the camera crosscuts between him and the defendant of the case. On the opposing end is a terrific Toni Collette as a prosecuting attorney, while J.K. Simmons plays a jury member and former detective who does his own (unethical) investigating. 

The film highlights the role of the justice system (and justification in general), with characters that weigh the facts and evidence against theories, even as they’re apparently being swayed or conflicted between guilt and innocence in more ways than one. Nowhere is this more tested than in Kemp himself, as he withholds what could be vital information, out of fear for his own life and for his family. The film’s tagline reads, “Justice is blind. Guilt sees everything.” 

Aided by Marc Mancina’s stirring score, this is a quietly intense and engrossing human drama, with elements that recall Eastwood’s 2003 adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel Mystic River. While PG-13, Juror #2 does feature some bloody imagery regarding the aftermath of the alleged murder. Its motifs of past mistakes, regrets, PTSD, and how it affects or even destroys other lives, sort of reminded me of that moment in Unforgiven, where Eastwood’s aging gunslinger Bill Munny confesses, “It’s a hell of a thing killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever going to be.” If this under-the-radar release is playing at your local movie theater, give it a witness. It’s one of this year’s standouts, and that’s the verdict. 

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