PG-13 | 1h 54m | Crime, Courtroom Drama | Nov. 1, 2024
Every once in a while, they actually make ‘em like they used to. That’s because Clint Eastwood—94-year-old, living-legend Clint Eastwood, who famously eschews newfangled, cockamamie cinematic cotton candy for pithiness—made “Juror #2.” He always attempts to give the audience something they can chew on.
Protagonist Is Also the Antagonist
Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a writer who’s got jury duty. He’d really rather prefer to be at home with his due-any-day-now pregnant wife Allison (Zoey Deutch).I had grand jury duty last summer, and while I understand its importance, the dark wood paneling, hard benches, droning attorneys, and the Broadway actor who eagerly volunteered to be foreman, relishing, as he did, reading summaries with a Shakespearian declamation, are not how I prefer to spend my time. Many of you know whereof I speak. Reliving that setting again was mildly challenging.
Flashbacks
There was a ghastly death; beautiful blonde Kendall (Francesca Eastwood, Clint’s daughter) suffered massive blunt-force trauma, and ended up in a ditch by a bridge, in a rainstorm, on a deserted road. She got there following a night of inebriation and vehement arguing with her boyfriend at Rowdy’s Hideaway, a roadside bar. Witnesses saw him smash a beer bottle, and a small crowd gathered outside the bar to cellphone video the subsequent public screaming match in the parking lot.
Obviously, her boyfriend James (Gabriel Basso) must have done the deadly deed, according to prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette), who’s hopeful that this clearly slam-dunk case will usher her straight into the district attorney’s office.
When Things Go Bump in the Night
Turns out, recovering alcoholic Justin Kemp himself was at Rowdy’s Hideaway that same night, having a battle of wills with a glass of whiskey, distraught from his wife’s recent miscarriage. Then, driving home in that rainstorm, his mind wandering—something went bump in the night. He thinks he hit a deer—look at that deer crossing sign right there—gotta be.As the case proceeds, Justin is putting two and two together, Googling “vehicular homicide,” and turning over his possible secret to his AA sponsor who also happens to be a lawyer (Kiefer Sutherland). Can Justin subtly steer his fellow jurors away from a guilty verdict without implicating himself in the process?
Carrying the Movie
Hoult gives a quiet but compelling performance as a man who soon understands: His entire future is in jeopardy if he fesses up. That he’s a recovering alcoholic struggling with sobriety, who displays a deep gratitude for the second chance at life he’s received, makes him sympathetic. And yet, there’s weaseliness.
Casting Toni Collette as the prosecuting attorney was a nice touch; Hoult played her son 22 years ago in “About a Boy.” It makes it seem as if she’s a mother who’s gone from discovering some kind of illegitimate stash in her teenager’s sock drawer, to dealing with a grown-up son with far more serious problems.
“Juror #2” is a modest procedural, but the ending is a tooth-rattling shoulder-shake that should generate a barrage of post-viewing discussions. This means I get to add my two cents, which involves the Gordian knot-claim.
I find that Alexander the Great’s sword, with which he slashed the mythic, notoriously impossible-to-loosen knot in half, is a good metaphor, in this case, for the law of karma. The Christian faith doesn’t support it, but objectively speaking, the concepts of karma and reincarnation easily explain many of these types of ethical knots.
Sages have pointed out that attempting to sidestep fate accrues a karmic debt that will invariably demand repayment one way or another. Apparently, during the next go-round, the repayment will be compounded by quite a bit of interest paid in the form of pain.
Justin’s incident—whether fatal or not I won’t say—would have therefore been fate right from the start; it could have been a karmic debt that had circled back and presented itself to him like a bill coming due. The dead girl would therefore have had serious karma to repay as well. She wasn’t able to shirk it. He considers shirking it. One shouldn’t shirk karma repayment. Kinda like one shouldn’t shirk jury duty.
