Juror #2 (2024, dir. Clint Eastwood)

by Jack Martin | Oct 30, 2024

Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 114 mins

UK Distributor: Warner Bros

UK Release Date: 1 November 2024

WHO’S IN JUROR #2?

Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, Kiefer Sutherland, Gabriel Basso, Francesca Eastwood, Leslie Bibb, Amy Aquino, Francesca Eastwood

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Clint Eastwood (director, producer), Jonathan Abrams (writer), Adam Goodman, Jessica Meier, Tim Moore, Peter Oberth and Matt Skiena (producers), Mark Mancina (composer), Yves Bélanger (cinematographer), David S. Cox and Joel Cox (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Whilst on the jury for a murder trial, a man (Hoult) realises he may be the real perpetrator…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON JUROR #2?

It will truly be a sad day in Hollywood when Clint Eastwood finally departs. The cinema icon’s acting career has spanned almost seven decades, and he’s been behind the camera for just over five of them, directing a number of compelling and crowd-pleasing movies that have earned plenty at the box office and even won Oscars for Best Picture. Whether you know him for his Westerns or for gritty dramas like Mystic River and Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood is a true legend of the screen whose legacy will undoubtably live on, even when he cannot.

There is some bittersweetness, then, in the likely fact that Juror #2 marks the end of the 94-year-old’s filmography. It is, in all, a perfectly fine movie to bow out on (especially after a period of mediocre-to-bad ones like The Mule and The 15:17 to Paris), but as a farewell to Eastwood’s reflective and commentative narrative voice, the kind that we probably won’t see again for a long while after he rides off into the sunset for good, it doesn’t quite have the same jolt of energy that the filmmaker once had.

Set in the state of Georgia, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a devoted husband to Allison (Zoey Deutch), who is heavily pregnant with their first child. Like many others, he is called for jury duty for an upcoming murder trial, and is eventually selected as one of the jurors, despite trying to get out of it for the sake of his expectant wife. However, as the jury hears from defence attorney Eric Resnick (Chris Messina), and prosecutor and DA candidate Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette), about what the case entails – the defendant, James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), is accused of killing his girlfriend Kendall (Francesca Eastwood) with his car after a public fight in a bar – Justin comes to a horrifying realisation. He was at the same bar on that fateful night, and whilst driving home he hit what he thought was a deer but… well, might not have been. Now, in an attempt to avoid sending an innocent man to a life sentence while also trying to keep the suspicion off of him, Justin attempts to sway the overall verdict toward a satisfying conclusion for all.

Like most Eastwood movies, the initial concept of Juror #2 is genuinely great. The script, by Jonathan Abrams, sets itself up as a Hitchcock thriller by way of 12 Angry Men, with a significant number of possibilities as to where this story could ultimately go, many of them intriguing right up to the end. There is some good dialogue sprinkled throughout, even amidst all the lawyer objections and judges overruling such things you’d expect in this kind of courtroom drama, and while the character work isn’t especially deep – for a while, you don’t even know that much about Nicholas Hoult’s protagonist for the initial bombshell to have as devastating an emotional impact as it should – there’s enough you can get from them to see their perspectives on certain things. The performances are strong, with Hoult giving a likeable lead turn while Collette is as fiercely watchable as ever – and for fans of About a Boy who may be desperate for a reunion between the former on-screen mother and son, I can report that yes, the two actors do indeed share a few poignant scenes with one another.

However, under Eastwood’s direction, the suspense of Abrams’ script is fairly streamlined, with the director – who, may I remind you, is currently 94 years old – lacking the energy to make this concept fully work in execution. Eastwood employs a lot of static camera placements in scenes where multiple people are talking, assumedly to spare him the directorial effort to shoot from other angles, but it ends up slowing the pace right down and denying the scene a sense of urgency, especially given the situation at hand. There’s also nothing truly outstanding about the way that the film looks, with Yves Bélanger’s otherwise serviceable cinematography painting the frame with a subdued hue that’s warm enough but aesthetically unremarkable (though it’s a bit more colourful than some of Eastwood’s much drabber-looking films of late).

Many of these problems, though, are excusable because Eastwood is, once again, at an age where he is nowhere near as agile or inventive as he once was as a filmmaker. The fact alone that he’s still making movies like this, and of fairly decent quality to boot, is genuinely awesome, especially when so many other nonagenarians are slowly fading away in care homes, probably watching daytime courtroom programmes like the ones that Juror #2 partially resembles. But even so, it breaks my heart to say that it is clear, and has been for a number of years now, that Eastwood no longer has the capacity for filmmaking. He is the Joe Biden of Hollywood filmmakers: well-meaning and dedicated to the end, but unable to realise that he’s past his prime and, like the actual Biden, needs to step aside in order to let someone take the mantle who’s far more able to fulfil their duties.

Although it may not be the most fitting end to a long and prosperous career, one that perhaps shows his age more than it should, Juror #2 remains watchable and interesting enough for audiences to get wrapped up in. It certainly won’t make anyone’s lists of top films by this director, but the film will definitely leave you a bit emotional by the fact that Clint Eastwood, after years of delighting audiences both in front of and behind the camera, is going out on a fairly capable note.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Juror #2 is a wholly decent send-off for director Clint Eastwood, but the 94-year-old director’s understandably less agile execution of Jonathan Abrams’ solid if flawed script ultimately proves that the screen icon might finally be on his way out.