This past weeks have been kinda hard on what to watch that I enjoy, having to clear my bucket list and going into old recommended movies that I never had the time to watch, also there are very few TV series worth watching at the moment, last night gave it a try to Clint Eastwood's latest movie "Juror #2", the movie for some reason only got a limited release of about 50 theaters in the US despite having good reviews, some online say this was Warner Bros playing dirty on him , but on Max its been doing pretty good with viewers, ranking in the top 10 most watched movies during December, there was a lot of buzz around it so I decided to watch it. I’ve always been a big Eastwood fan and this movie once again proves why Eastwood has been delivering tons of hits in his 50 year career as a director, at 94 years old Eastwood gives us what could be his final movie, its not set in stone yet but the guy might be taking an awaited break after this one, a legal thriller that will have you thinking about what you would do in the same situation.
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he story is a juicy one right from the go with Nicholas Hoult as Justin Kemp, who is now part of a jury for what looks like an easy murder trial of a man who goes by the name of James Sythe for beating his girlfriend to death and throwing her body in the ditch after fight at a local bar, as the trial goes on Justin begins to remember that he was at this bar too that same night and that he thought he hit a deer with his car that night but in fact might have hit and killing the victim, and this is one of the biggest problems I have with the movie is how forensics didn't figure out she was actually hit by a car and not beaten to death. Its Justin's consciousness starting to deteriorate his mental health and falls into a moral crisis trying to decide between speaking up about what he did or having an innocent man go to jail for a crime he may or may not have committed.
I still couldn't figure out why this movie got such a small theater release and even more so if this is Eastwood's last film as a director, but the movie did found an audience in streaming because this is the kind of movie that touch and gets to people, makes you think about what you would do in similar circumstances besides the acting is pretty good, for anyone from the US accent might be a thing since its placed on the South of the country some of the accents might sound force or fake but I'm sure for anyone that is not from US would be just fine.
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The whole concept of the movie is pretty simple, but it is executed in a way that it never gets boring or repetitive. As a director Eastwood knows how to keep you interested in the story as more details are revealed and Justin struggles to do what's right but of course there are a few things that don't really add up, like why wouldn't a medical examiner notice the difference between beating and being hit by a car, or how did the jury go from been split by half to all agreeing on a guilty verdict without much explanation, these are small details that I ask myself if they are intentional mistakes to keep you interested or create controversy around the movie and make you think you are the smart one on the room?!
On the cast we got Toni Collette playing Faith Killebrew the prosecutor, who has political aspirations to become district attorney and sees this case as a way to advance her career, but overall the performances are solid and give us a good story. The rest of the cast, including J.K. Simmons plays Harold as a retired detective on the jury who begins to suspect something is not right with the case and this is the biggest example of why I think there are things done; mistakes on purpose, Harold had his doubts about the eyewitness testimony probably been bias also by medical students who suggested Kendall look more like a hit and run case rather than beaten to death, but eventually he never manage to discover Justin since he was remove from the jury after Justin himself report him to court, thing is that they are suppose to be just jury to listen, witness and take decisions based on the evidence shown during trial and not play detective. Then there is Zoey Deutch as Justin’s wife and Gabriel Basso as James Sythe the accused murderer, all do a good job with their roles, some of them getting more screen time than others.
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After the trial conclude we end with Faith showing up at Justin’s house after he kind of confirmed that he might have been the one who kill Kendall that night, he also took measure by selling his car and getting potential evidence wipe out, the ending is very ambiguous and I think this is intentional, there are times were cliffhangers are made with a reason, that reason is to create controversy and get people to talk about the movie, same goes as the mistakes made by forensic that a medical student did pick up. I felt Justin the entire movie act very shitty trying to cover his ass, it was the continuous theme through out the movie how he manage to make his way out but both Harold and Faith knew it was him who did it. Harold had a record of the cars that went by the place at that hour on top of knowing it was Justin who got him remove from the Jury, still more holes on the plot of why they never picked up all this during the trial and not after. What really safe Justin is that Harold couldn't investigate all the cars on the list since he got removed from the jury, if he proceed might be a felony and when Faith visited Ally about the car; since it was under her name, didn't realize it was Justin because they had different last names, call him a lucky bastard.
For a movie that was almost buried by Warner Bros, "Juror #2" proves to be a solid addition to Eastwood's filmography, its not perfect and there are some plot holes and unexplained details but overall its an entertaining one, if you are into movies where you have to pick up the pieces and put the puzzle together even though if at times doesn't make much sense, then this movie could be for you too, a thought provoking movie that keeps you wanting to know more but not about the case, wanting to know more about how far Justin will go to stay away from jail, he even put a man on jail for him, I give it a 7/10 and recommend it to anyone who enjoys legal crime movies or Eastwood's work in general.
