November 15, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
How much grace should audiences give celebrated auteurs based on their filmography?
It’s an important question when evaluating movies that have big star power attached to the credits but yet seem to underwhelm critically and commercially when released in theaters.
At 94, Clint Eastwood has more than earned a wide cache of leniency for his work given his illustrious background as an Oscar winning actor and director. With what could be his final film, “Juror #2” was able to earn a limited theatrical run after being envisioned as a direct-to-streaming release on Max following its status as the closing film at this year’s American Film Institute Festival.
“Juror #2” finds Eastwood back in the director’s chair one more time for a middle-of-the-road courtroom drama and crime thriller that seeks to evoke a John Grisham-like noir but the below average screenplay from Jonathan Abrams really limits the potential of this film to be among Eastwood’s career highlights.
Nicholas Hoult stars as Jeremy, an expectant father called into jury duty in the final part of his wife’s third trimester and the morally ambiguous nature of the trial coincides with inside information Justin has about the case which creates a quandary as the swing vote while a man’s life hangs in the balance.
The guilt-ridden face Hoult almost compulsively wears throughout the majority of the film seems bafflingly lost on his fellow jurors and those around him, but helps viewers understand the worry his Justin feels at every twist and turn in the case unsure of what the right thing to do is.
Without question, “Juror #2” intentionally draws comparisons to 1957’s “12 Angry Men” with Hoult seeming to be a riff on the classic Henry Fonda lead of that film. Hoult does a solid job leaning into and away from these comparisons when needed to deliver a worthy performance with a character written so thinly one-dimensional that it’s hard for any nuance or complexity to come out in the performance.
Clearly, Justin’s past has a strong impact on his ability to view the case objectively and there’s little subtlety in the writing, Hoult’s turn, or Eastwood’s direction to make the film more complex or keep audiences from clueing in early as to what the final outcome will be.
There isn’t anything particularly wrong with Hoult in the film and he’s able to competently lead the ensemble cast while maintaining audience attention, but nothing special arises from this largely pedestrian effort.
Eastwood also relies heavily on veteran character actors Toni Collette and Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons to provide gravitas in key secondary roles as the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case and a fellow juror with a secret of his own respectively. Only Collette, however, is given a character with enough background and stakes to show complexity as a prosecutor using the case to jumpstart her political career.
While Collette wrings out any semblance of nuance that she can from her character’s own moral and ethical dilemmas, “Juror #2” is less interested in what drives her to succeed at any cost than the other questions that Abrams and Eastwood seek to examine.
Visually, Eastwood maintains a steady camera that feels like a slightly amplified version of traditional courtroom procedurals with the occasional over-the-shoulder shot from the jury’s perspective altering the usual viewpoint audiences have of the witness stand and attorney’s tables in courtroom scenes.
Eastwood films have long been noted for their unique, iconic scores that help reinforce emotions and motifs within a film, yet the limited, subdued nature of the soundtrack here is almost so quiet that it impedes even the most minor ability to increase melodrama in “Juror #2.”
Warner Brothers surprisingly doesn’t appear to have plans to expand the theatrical window much further than it already has with reports that “Juror #2” should be expected to hit Max before the end of the year.
If for no other reason, audiences would be well-served to seek out what is likely to be the final Eastwood directed film – a competent, mid-tier adult legal drama – in theaters as a means of honoring one of cinema’s greatest, most tenured, and celebrated auteurs in the format worthy of his talents.
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