Quentin Tarantino is totally in the right as a filmmaker wanting to make one last movie and then retiring. We’re never promised a tomorrow. Yet, if we can continue to leave something behind to make our exit more memorable, then so be it.
If he makes it to May 31, Clint Eastwood will be 95. For a man who was lucky enough to survive an outrageously unbelievable plane crash when he was in the Army, Eastwood hasn’t rested like other movie veterans. (Seriously, Google that crash. It can be a movie in of itself.) His Unforgiven co-star Gene Hackman retired to New Mexico over 20 years ago. Tarantino talked in his book, Cinema Speculation, about how some directors fizzle out, noting Don Siegel who worked with Eastwood.
Alfred Hitchcock isn’t remembered much for Family Plot as he is Psycho, North by Northwest or Vertigo. Harold Ramis made Groundhog Day, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Caddyshack. But Year One was a horrible swan song. That being said, a movie like Juror #2 deserved a lot more respect and attention from Warner Bros. Discovery rather than to be released in only 50 theaters. It’s not much of a legal courtroom thriller as it is a morality play.
The following contains no spoilers because it’s all revealed in the first 20 minutes. Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is the titular character. He’s a journalist living in the Savannah area and expecting a new child with his wife, Ally Crewson (Zoey Deutch). And it’s a high-risk pregnancy as Ally has lost the child on previous pregnancies.
Basically, thinking he’s going to come in to the jury selection and tell them he’s a journalist with a family medical issue and be excused, Justin finds himself being placed on the jury. But he assures Ally it looks to be a quick one. James Michael Sythe (Gabriel Basso) has a checkered criminal history and on trial for murder of his girlfriend, Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood), whose body was found beaten and bloody in a ravine under a bridge down the road from a roadhouse bar they were seen having an argument earlier.
However, Justin soon begins to realize he may have a connection to the case. More important, he may be the one responsible for Kendall’s death. Justin is a recovering alcoholic who has a moment of weakness one night and goes to the same bar James and Kendall were at for a drink. He leaves late at night driving through the rain buzzing and when Ally sends him a text, he temporarily takes his eyes off the road and hits something near the bridge. Thinking he just hit a deer, he went home and got the damage fixed.
So, his dilemma is if he actually hit Kendall or not as it was dark and rainy and he was unable to see what he hit. Or did James really beat Kendall to death and dump her body down below the bridge? Medical examiners say her injuries look like those from blunt force trauma. A lot of eye witnesses at the bar say James and Kendall’s fight got a little physical. And a homeowner who lives nearby the bridge testifies he saw James.
Yet, the question arises in the jury deliberation if the investigators and prosecutors just targeted James because of his criminal history connected to a street gang. Another juror, Marcus King (Cedric Yarborough), runs a youth-help center and knows people like James and what they’re capable of. A third juror, Harold Chicowski (J.K. Simmons), is a retired homicide detective from the Midwest, who suspects James may have just been targeted due to tunnel vision.
While there are some elements of the movie that are questionable such as the fact that the prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) not even examining other possibilities such as Kendall could’ve been hit by a car or even stumbled as she was wearing heels in a the rain, it does give us an honest example of the judicial system. Chris Messina plays the public defender Eric Resnick who is overwhelmed with too many cases and not enough money nor time. He and Faith are old friends and colleagues and he can tell she’s blinded by her race for district attorney. A win in this case will help get the votes she needs.
Yet Eric shows some prejudice as he asks Marcus certain questions during the voir dire that he doesn’t ask other potential jurors mainly because Marcus is a black man. And the judge Thelma Stewart (Amy Aquino) refuses Eric’s request for a mistrial when he discovers Harold is a retired police officer because she didn’t probably ask him the right questions during the voir dire. The judge also dismisses Harold for doing investigating on his own when Justin piques his interest about a possible hit and run so he assembles a list of vehicles that reported front-end damage around the same time of Kendall’s death.
This is probably in response to criticism of 12 Angry Men and how jurors can’t do their own investigations of criminal cases outside what evidence is presented and approved. Justin reminds the jurors they have to determine whether Gabriel did it beyond reasonable doubt. Yet, many jurors have already made up their minds on biased opinions.
Marcus seems to want some vindication for his younger brother who was killed by street gangs. And Denice Aldworth (Leslie Bibb) who functions as the jury foreperson seems to be obsessed with serving on a jury that ends in a guilty verdict. She mentions she served on previous juries that ended in mistrials and more or less appoints herself foreperson. Bibb adds a suburban housewife perky feel that is a cross between June Cleaver and the worst Karen you’d ever want to meet in the food service/retail industry.
Eastwood is known for his quick directing style, often feeling that scenes can be shot in a few takes if not one take. The choice in casting is what sells this movie. For a movie that is set near where I lived and went to college for four years, Eastwood has finally got the look and feel of the area after there was much criticism over his 1997 legal drama misstep Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Collette handles the Savannah accent so well, she can probably walk up and down River Street with her eyes close on St. Patrick’s Day and not bump into anyone. And there’s not much of those awful bad Southern accents that other actors have used.
I will say Deutch has the thankless role of being the somewhat nagging wife stereotype. Eastwood is known for his rowdy and randy behavior over the years so the one area where he has never really been efficient is in the portrayal of women. Laura Linney as Lorraine Sullenberger in Sully was a glorified cameo as she played the stereotypical wife on the phone role. Dianne Wiest seemed to only exist in The Mule as the estranged ex-wife of Eastwood’s character so she would get sick and die of cancer. But it was still better than the wife of Bradley Cooper’s DEA character who is talked about but never even appears.
That being said, with so many characters, it’s hard to give depth to them all. Hoult does give a wonderful thought-provoking performance as a man who has to consider doing the right thing versus what what society would want him to do. Yes, James might not have killed Kendall. But if he is acquitted, will he learn his lesson? Or will he go too far with the next girlfriend/partner? Justin’s Alcoholic Anonymous sponsor Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland), who is also a lawyer himself, tells him that if he was inebriated and committed a fatal hit-and-run he can go away to prison for many years himself.
You hear this a lot about violent offenders and how they “just made a mistake.” So did Justin. He’s got a family to support. Yet James, despite his checkered past, decided it was best to leave Kendall be while other men would’ve become belligerent and violent. We shouldn’t consider what other things people might have done which aren’t pertinent to a criminal case. But we do. Our laws are supposed to apply to everyone and keep them free from cruel, unjust and unfair prosecution.
At least that’s the theory.
But Eastwood, who is known for his more conservative Libertarian views, shows us that all sides can be biased and have tunnel vision. It’s a shame this movie wasn’t given more attention by the big studios. A few decades ago, this would be a bigger movie, especially if someone like Eastwood who has won two Oscars as Best Director and two Best Picture movies, was helming it. And it would be an Oscar contender itself.
And considering how Eastwood’s long-term partner, Christina Sandera, passed away last summer, it’s like Eastwood doesn’t have the strength, energy or desire to make another movie, especially if it’s going to get this treatment he’s received from the studio he’s had a good working relationship with going back to when David Zaslav was popping zits on his face in the mirror and jerking it to the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 