Juror #2 – Film Review
by Brian Merriman

Produced and Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Jonathan Abrams
Starring: Nicholas Holt, Toni Collette, J.K Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Kiefer Sutherland.

Juror#2 is the latest movie by iconic nonagenarian Director Clint Eastwood (who also co-produces). He is still on top of his game with his interpretation of Jonathan Abrams’ interesting script.

Courtroom dramas have often occupied the minds of writers for the silver screen, with predecessors like ‘12 Angry Men’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ setting the bar so high decades ago. So why Juror#2?

Writer Abrams sets out to achieve something different. There is drama, tension, and manipulated debate, but not the ‘edge of your seat’ stuff that benchmarks previous courtroom stories. Here Abrams emphasises the human engagement with the justice system and of course, it is underscored by some highly principled American standards of Justice!

Nicholas Holt is well cast as ‘Justin Kemp’, the likeable married guy, soon-to-be Dad, who finds himself unwittingly facing a major moral dilemma. He has successfully turned his life around, having battled alcoholism and his sober self has lots to admire. He and his wife ‘Ally’ an emotional Zoey Deutch, are full of hope. They are united in overcoming strife in expecting their first child after a difficult time with previous pregnancies. All is looking better this time. ‘Justin’ is devoted and wants nothing more than to finally be a Dad. We want that for him too.

Holt plays the quintessential nice guy who finds himself called for Jury duty. Here Abrams treats us to a courtroom perspective from the Juror’s point of view, not often captured in these popular treatments of the on-screen Justice system.

Toni Colette and Chris Messina are our prosecutors and defenders of bad boy James Sythe, accused of murdering his girlfriend in an edgy performance by Gabriel Basso.

As well as prosecuting this well-publicised trail, Collette is also running for District Attorney. She is tough, well briefed and ambitiously busy. Messina as the defender believes in his client’s innocence, but the evidence to convict seems overwhelming, or does it?

There are good cameos as a courtroom drama demands from the Judge and the Jury members, especially Simmons and Sutherland. There may be no major speeches from a contemporary ‘Atticus Finch’, but there is a constant opportunity for us to get to know ‘Kemp’ and to develop some sympathy with him. This may seem to slow the dramatic pace a bit, but Eastwood gives Holt every opportunity to convey his human essence in these close-up and studied scenes. They work well.

Though Holt and Collette’s characters skirt around each other from the start, they eventually come together in a dilemma-filled finale. Somewhat predictably, the honourably motivated concept of an American’s unshaken quest for truth and justice is again called upon to resolve the flawed verdicts of the system.

Juror #2 does not deliver that knock-out dramatic punch that often rewards us from listening to endless, motivated courtroom arguments. But, Abrams does find a new story to tell, it is paced differently, with an emphasis on a ‘face in the crowd’. We get to know him and watch his realisation of connection unfold, in a well-made movie that brings us to a conclusion at a somewhat different pace than other edge-of-the-seat fractious courtrooms.

The study of the central character, the playing of the moral struggles, and the efforts to resolve an unresolvable dilemma make this an engaging story, that twists and turns on an unpredictable axis with considerable success. It’s a good story made into a good movie.