Clint Eastwood’s Masterful ‘Juror #2’ Is a Challenging Thriller About Moral Dilemmas

Alci Rengifo

The guilty conscience is one of the great themes in all dramas because we all have one for large or small reasons. Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” is an engrossing tale of a man who finds himself in a real nightmare. A person can know they did something wrong, but rarely have in their hands the fate of an innocent being blamed for it. Before going deeper into this film, let us reflect on how this is Eastwood working at the age of 94. Other peers have received criticism for making increasingly disappointing material in their twilight years, while this is such a controlled, focused thriller. Will it be the great actor-director’s curtain call? If so, it is a strong one.

Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a recovering alcoholic and lifestyle magazine writer, preparing to welcome a baby with wife Allison (Zoey Deutch). Like most of us, he receives a jury duty summons. Justin shows up and ends up being selected. It turns out the case involves a man named James (Gabriel Basso), who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Kendall (played by Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood), on a rainy night after a fight at a bar. The evidence points to James throwing Kendall over a bridge, where she died on the rocks below. Justin had been driving down that same bridge that very night and struck something before taking off. It immediately dawns on him that what he hit could very well have been Kendall. 

This is the instantly gripping set up of Jonathan A. Abrams’ smart screenplay, which could have easily become a sensationalist yarn in the spirit of John Grisham. Instead, it functions like something from Kafka or Dostoevsky, where the suspense is generated from Justin’s crushing moral dilemma. Like “12 Angry Men,” the story turns the 11 members of the jury into a diverse, debating set of personalities who surround the main character and compound his fears. Marcus (Cedric Yarbrough) wants to instantly convict the defendant and go home. Harold (J.K. Simmons), a retired detective, begins to suspect there is more to the evidence than meets the eye. Denice (Leslie Bibb) is the cheerful suburban wife who appoints herself the leader in the room. 

Eastwood then builds an inner and outer web of clashing emotions for Justin. He is certain of his culpability, so he begins to guide the jury towards not convicting James so quickly. Yet, he also can’t bring himself to confess. Eastwood has always been good at telling stories of characters that are hiding something terrible or surrounded by suspicion. The unjust nature of the world plays crucially in his best thrillers, like “Absolute Power” and “Mystic River.” He creates moments of simple, acute tension when Justin returns to the crime scene, only to see Harold snooping nearby. Is it a desire to be found out that drives Justin to be the one who suggests the death was the result of a hit and run? That kind of psychological insight makes “Juror #2” more engaging than another thriller involving chases and shootouts. It also forces the audience to step into Justin’s shoes and wonder what choices we would make if in his position. During the trial, when Eastwood cuts to various testimonials about the night in question, he leaves just enough room for doubt. On a stormy night with wind and trees, a witness’ eyesight is easily compromised.

As a director, Eastwood is nearly always guaranteed a great cast in the leading and smaller roles. Each one is engaging enough. Toni Collette is fantastic as the prosecutor, Faith Killebrew, who may be blinded by her own ambitions to be district attorney. She is not a villain, just a focused professional who sees no reason to doubt James’ guilt. He has a record of violent behavior and had hit Kendall in a room full of witnesses. The defense lawyer, Eric, is played with excellent subtlety by Chris Messina, not as a cartoon hero, but as another person doing their job with genuine commitment. The rest of the jury all give lively performances, with not a wasted line given to anyone. They are a chorus of honest depictions of how we operate. Some people will just want to get it over with and go home, no matter the consequences.

Eastwood’s films have sometimes swerved into odd forms of conservatism (such as “American Sniper”), or populist critiques of the system (as with “Richard Jewell”), but what they seem to carry is a strong sense of good vs. bad. “Juror #2” takes no political stances. It is purely about honesty and how far someone is willing to go to protect themselves. Justin is played by Nicholas Hoult in one of his best performances as a tragic player in life’s cruel sense of irony. The night of Kendall’s death, he went to a bar but didn’t touch his drink. He and Allison have been in mourning over a miscarriage, meaning we cannot judge his despair. That does not excuse his potential cover-up of a death that is his fault. As imperfect as the system is, Eastwood still wants to believe we have a moral center that won’t let us rest.

Eastwood has been directing for so long that he makes the process seem flawless. “Juror #2” has a near-perfect rhythm to its pacing, while the cinematography by Yves Bélanger stays classic, focusing on the faces of characters grappling with the wheels turning in their heads. There is no confirmation that Eastwood is retiring, but this could be his last film. In a year where another towering figure like Francis Ford Coppola feels he needs to prove himself with a bizarre mammoth like “Megalopolis,” here comes Eastwood with a small film that still feels like a big gesture. Good films can simply be about us and how we are driven by self-interest and fear. The characters of “Juror #2” don’t need to inhabit vast, imaginary landscapes or sagas to keep us engaged. It is riveting enough to watch Justin grapple with how everything one has or recovered can be lost over a fateful choice on a rainy night.

“Juror #2” releases Nov. 1 in select theaters.