“Is the truth always justice?” inquires a taciturn Nicholas Hoult in Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Juror #2. This prescient question lies at the heart of Eastwood’s new work, a courtroom drama and character study that is his best in over a decade, pondering a deep moral dilemma of Dostoyevskian proportions.
Hoult plays Justin Kemp, a recovering alcoholic with a pregnant wife due any day now. His life seems back on track when he’s summoned for jury duty.
The case appears straightforward: James Sythe, a former gang member played by Gabriel Basso, who portrayed Vice President-elect J.D. Vance in the Hillbilly Elegy adaptation, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend. The prosecution paints Sythe as a violent offender who, after an argument at a bar, allegedly followed his girlfriend into the night and killed her. The evidence is flimsy, yet the jury is nearly unanimous in their belief of his guilt.
It is when Kemp suddenly recalls being at the same bar on the same night that the film’s first act begins. He recalls having hit something substantial, driving in pitch darkness under pouring rain, and, assuming it was a deer, thought little of it. However, putting two and two together, he now believes he is about to convict an innocent man for his own crime, albeit accidental. The weight of this realization bears heavily on him, and the moral quandary becomes the film’s central tension.
Though better known for his wry comedic roles, Hoult convincingly embodies the strife-ridden Kemp. We see his demeanor immediately transform from indifferent and aloof, mentally occupied with his pregnant wife, to terrified and pallid. His subtle twitching and stutter are testaments to his acting chops, conveying a man grappling with unimaginable guilt and torn between his responsibility to his family and the responsibility he feels as an emissary of the law.
Eastwood excels in his direction, divulging just the right information at the right time. As Justin’s flashbacks keep taking him back to that night at the bar, we start to doubt the facts and appreciate the moral complexities at hand. The early scene in which the jury deliberates is cut from the same cloth as 12 Angry Men. However, instead of a righteous Henry Fonda, we have a complex and conflicted Hoult, a man who hasn’t knowingly erred and, with a child on the way, is on a path to redemption from his former vices.
What sets Juror #2 apart is its unflinching exploration of justice and personal responsibility within a flawed system. Former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. With this film, Eastwood effectively conveys the same idea about our legal system.
Kemp consults his close friend and lawyer, Larry Lasker (played by Kiefer Sutherland), who warns that confessing would ruin his life. Is telling the truth always the right path, especially when it could destroy not only Kemp’s future but also his family’s? Eastwood doesn’t offer easy answers, immersing us in Justin’s turmoil and forcing us to confront uncomfortable questions about virtue and integrity.
As the trial goes on, conflicting motives and systemic incompetencies slowly surface. The prosecutor, Faith Killebrew, played with steely determination, is primed to become the district attorney if she can securely lock up the presumed domestic killer. Meanwhile, J.K. Simmons portrays a former detective who, due to a failure in the jury selection process, remains on the panel, discovering that the laziest police work has been done on the case. There were no other suspects identified or questioned.
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Eastwood deftly weaves these threads together, creating a narrative about moral ambiguity and ethical quandaries. Despite a near-two-hour runtime, the sustained tension is so gripping that the film breezes by.
If we are ever going to have another person over the age of 80 run for president, might I suggest Eastwood? At 94 years old, nobody has any business making movies this sharp and this profound. In 2021, after seeing Cry Macho, I thought I was reviewing Eastwood’s final film. Though there are already unconfirmed reports that he’s back to reading scripts in search of his next project, should Eastwood decide to bookend his career with Juror #2, it would be a fine and worthy coda.
Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a computer engineer in Toronto pursuing his MBA.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
