AFI Fest Review: ‘Juror #2’ Has an Intriguing Opening Statement but Doesn’t Know How to Best Argue its Case

Potential jurors being considered for a case are told they must disclose whether they have any personal connections to people involved that might prevent them from rendering a fair decision. It’s always possible that they could later determine something that compromises their ability to be objective, but it’s not usually as glaring as potentially being the one who committed the crime. In the latest film from veteran director Clint Eastwood, one juror looking to simply get home to his very pregnant wife comes to the swift realization that he should be the prime suspect in the case he’s sitting on, prompting him to make a series of questionable decisions to simultaneously keep his conscience clean and protect himself.

Where Juror #2 succeeds well is in its realistic depiction of a random jury makeup, a mix of people who believe strongly in their convictions and those who just don’t want to be there. Some are set on not changing their minds because they aren’t willing to hear anything else, while others don’t seem to care that much but still need to be convinced. Among them also is one woman (Leslie Bibb) who volunteers to be the foreperson only to later indicate stress about the job she specifically demanded, and Justin (Nicholas Hoult), who really wants to be home with his wife ahead of her due date but knows that he needs to stay there and ensure that justice can, in some way, be served in a manner that doesn’t result in him being implicated.

The intriguing premise of someone who finds himself in the direct center of a court case to which he’s been randomly assigned could theoretically make for a riveting thriller. Unfortunately, the construction of this film, which comes from first-time screenwriter Jonathan Abrams and director Clint Eastwood, who is now ninety-four years old, lets the story do all the heavy lifting. Flashbacks quickly reveal Justin’s apparent complicity very early on in the film, and though twists in the narrative do come, there’s nothing inherently cinematic about the way that they play out, left to be digested by audiences without any added flair or style.

Despite its tweaked plot, this is a standard courtroom drama that plays out in an entirely expected way, featuring intercut exchanges from the driven prosecutor (Toni Collette) and the equally belligerent defense counsel (Chris Messina). The accused (Gabriel Basso) gets up to testify and the members of the jury watch and listen, later hashing out how genuine he actually was. The deliberations are substantially more engaging than the trial itself, though it’s mostly just conversation which doesn’t reach anywhere near the level of 12 Angry Men.

Eastwood has been consistently delivering new films every few years to mixed results, with Richard Jewell and Sully his most recent peaks since his last brush with Oscar love, which came a decade ago for American Sniper. Though he’s still clearly quite capable many years after most people opt to retire from their day jobs, there’s nothing about this project that feels like an Eastwood film. His decades in the industry have taught him much that he’s put on display in films like Unforgiven, Mystic River, Changeling, and Gran Torino, but this film simply doesn’t stand out as a recognizable product of such an experienced and talented doctor.

Hoult is at a great point in his career where he’s scoring top-tier roles, and he does his best with this one even though he’s certainly better in juicier parts like his Emmy-nominated work in The Great and playing Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman. There’s something fun about his reunion with Collette, his onscreen mother in About a Boy twenty-two years ago, but she’s had much stronger material, as has Messina. In the jury room, Adrienne C. Moore, Cedric Yarbrough, and J.K. Simmons make their characters stand out, while Zoey Deutch enhances the film’s non-court scenes as Justin’s pregnant wife. The story is involving enough but doesn’t know exactly where to go by its end, settling as a decent film with an inviting hook that can’t quite pull it off in an equally enticing way.

Movie Rating: 6/10

Awards Buzz: That Warner Bros. didn’t include this film in the studio’s awards campaign is a sign that, despite its plum launch as the closing night selection of AFI Fest, it’s just not an awards movie. Given the talented involved – namely Eastwood, Hoult, Collette, and Simmons – it’s a shame, but it would be hard to argue that any of them should be rewarded for this standard but hardly exceptional work.