Juror #2 (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Mar 19, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Clint EastwoodRelease Date(s)
2024 (February 4, 2025)Studio(s)
Dichotomy Films/Malpaso Productions/Warner Bros. (Warner Home Video)- Film/Program Grade: A-
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: F
Review
First things first: the courtroom drama Juror #2 (2024) does not in any way resemble the diminishing efforts of an enfeebled, 94-year-old filmmaker trying to crank out one last film. Indeed, it’s as engaged, economical, and intelligently crafted as director Clint Eastwood’s best films. It may turn out to be Eastwood’s last but, if so, he leaves us, remarkably and firmly at the top of his game.
There’s a surprising video from the early 1980s of Orson Welles declaring Clint Eastwood “the most underrated director in the world today.” Though undeniably efficient, other than a couple of the Eastwood-directed Westerns (e.g., High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales), this great talent was for decades anything but widely acknowledged, even though as early as the little-seen but remarkable Breezy (1973) and again with Bird (1985), Eastwood demonstrated this considerable talent which so impressed Welles. Yet it wasn’t until Eastwood shed his tough guy image in forgettable star vehicles like Pink Cadillac and The Rookie that his full-flowered artistry became clear.
Over the past 22 years Eastwood directed 17 features, the worst of which were well-made if unremarkable, and others, like Sully (2016), solid if workmanlike pieces. But in his 70s and beyond he made Million Dollar Baby (2004)—not only his best film as director, but which also features his best acting performance, a revelation—the superlative Gran Torino and The Mule, which are almost as good, and a series of excellent non-starring films, the best of the more recent bunch being Richard Jewell (2019), a technically and dramatically complex film with a superbly directed leading performance, made when Eastwood was already pushing 90. Watching Cry Macho (2021), the first film where Eastwood’s advanced age is jarringly apparent, I had doubts that his health would allow one more. Boy, was a wrong.
Juror #2 operates from a gimmicky premise, but the screenplay by Jonathan Abrams justifies it with rich, sometimes surprising character portraits. About 15 minutes-worth of its 114-minute running time can’t help but seem imitative of 12 Angry Men, (there’s the Jack Warden character, there’s the Ed Begley, etc.) but even there the payoff justifies that unavoidable comparison.
In Savannah, Georgia, recovering alcoholic Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called for jury duty on a case in which James Sythe (Gabriel Basso) is charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Kendall Carter, following a drunken, very public argument at a local bar, she later found dead in a creek under a bridge.
As prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) presents her case, Justin is horrified by the realization that he, rather than Sythe, might have accidentally killed Kendall himself. In an extraordinary coincidence, seen in flashbacks, Justin was also at the same bar that night, witnessed the argument, and while driving home hit something with his car while momentarily distracted by a text from his wife. Unable to see much through the heavy rain and darkness, Justin assumed he’d hit a deer.
He confers with his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, Larry (Kiefer Sutherland), an attorney, but he advises him against going to the police. Though Justin was sober—he ordered a drink at the bar but did not touch it—with his past history of DUIs, no one would believe him and most probably he would be convicted of vehicular homicide. Justin’s only way out, it would seem, is to ensure a not-guilty verdict in the jury room.
Juror #2 is significantly better than this preposterous-sounding plot summary might suggest. In telling its story, as the movie audience sees flashbacks of the incident and learns the back stories of various characters, the movie not only becomes credible, but also engagingly complex. Initially unsympathetic characters like Sythe and prosecutor Killebrew—Toni Collette channeling politically ambitious star attorneys like Leslie Abramson—become more shaded. Justin, initially admirable as a young man who turned his life around with the help of a supportive, elementary school teacher wife, Allison (Zoey Deutch), and who together suffered the loss of twins during her pregnancy, gradually becomes less sympathetic through his jury-tampering.
Much more than the “legal thriller” it was marketed as, Juror #2 impressively explores deeper themes of societal moral responsibilities, personal redemption, the problems of confirmation bias, and more. The well-cast Nicholas Hoult, in a fine performance, exudes vulnerability, quiet panic, and sympathy throughout the film, Justin having struggled unimaginably to overcome his alcoholism, particularly when the wife he credits with his salvation suffered a double miscarriage and her current pregnancy, with the trial in full-swing, remains high risk. His momentary carelessness resulting in Kendall’s death (presumably—the film leaves room for some ambiguity) was clearly an accident, Justin hardly deserving a decades-long prison sentence. Conversely, Sythe is anything but sympathetic, yet accused of a crime of which Justin knows he is completely innocent.
Abrams’s screenplay is almost too ambitious in trying to flesh out even the most minor of characters, but these efforts mostly pay off. J.K. Simmons is superb as flower shop owner Harold, a member of the jury who also happens to be a retired cop. He agrees with Keiko (Chikako Fukuyama), another juror and third-year resident that Kendall’s injuries suggest might have been the victim of a hit-and-run. The script strains credibility somewhat in conveniently providing characters with occupations that move the story forward: Larry the attorney, Harold the ex-cop, Keiko the medical student, etc. Conversely, the film sure seemed headed for one exit before impressively choosing another one. How it ends spurs the movie audience to reflect back on what it has just seen, and in so doing one can see how moments in the film that didn’t seem to entirely work actually do.
When I worked for Warner Bros. in the late 1990s, the Semel-Daly era of the company, Clint Eastwood was a veritable god and no wonder—Eastwood’s movies were the studio’s most reliable breadwinners. But just like the godfathers in The Boss, Eastwood’s half-century of innumerable critical and commercial hits, including recent ones like American Sniper, Sully, and The Mule, meant nothing to the company’s new owners, they initially planning to dump Juror #2 into the streaming market with no theatrical release at all, finally bowing to pressure yet limiting the film to less than 50 screens in the United States. Some gratitude.
Likewise, Warner Home Video’s Blu-ray of Juror #2 feels perfunctory at best. The cover art and back cover text don’t do the film justice, and the disc is without any extra features at all. At least the presentation is good. Filmed in ARRIRAW 4.6K format for 2.39:1 projection, on my system the film is indistinguishable visually from Eastwood’s earlier, favored 35mm Panavision films. The image is impressively sharp with excellent blacks, contrast, etc. Though aurally modest, the disc includes Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 7.1, and Dolby Digital 5.1 options in English, French, and Spanish, plus English descriptive audio and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. The disc itself is Region-Free. Also included is a Digital Code on a paper insert within the package.
Minor complaints aside, Juror #2 is an excellent film, deserving of a wider audience. Highly Recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV