Film Review — Juror #2
An agreeably knotty legal thriller from Clint Eastwood
If this turns out to be Clint Eastwood’s final film as director (he’s 94), it’s a solid note on which to bring down the curtain on a remarkable career. Juror #2 doesn’t rank among his very best, but it’s a wholly gripping thriller based around an agreeably knotty moral dilemma, courtesy of screenwriter Jonathan Abrams.
Nicholas Hoult contributes a fine central performance as Justin Kemp, an alcoholic four years sober. He’s married to Ally (Zoey Deutch), who is heavily pregnant. All seems well, but when Justin is summoned for jury service, he makes an alarming discovery. He knows the man on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), is not guilty because Justin accidentally killed her himself, when he hit her with his car during a rainstorm on a dark night. Having assumed he had hit a deer or some other animal, he drove away, not realising he’d knocked her body off the road.
Seeking confidential counsel from his fellow Alcoholics Anonymous lawyer friend Larry (Kiefer Sutherland), Justin is advised that, for unfortunate circumstantial reasons, he faces a vehicular homicide charge if he comes forward and a potential thirty-year prison sentence. Alarmed at this potential outcome, Justin feels he has no choice but to go the full Henry Fonda…
