Juror #2 Review: A Layered Adult Drama!

As the film industry has risen to allow new filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their talents, the immense influence of some of the greats never seem to die. On the contrary, it seems as if certain genres that built the industry decades before have been withering away, including adult dramas. In an industry slowly being taken over by IPs and all-audiences entertainment, Clint Eastwood based his career in some of the best adult westerns and dramas that have stood the test of time.

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Clint Eastwood now being in his 90s still continues to direct feature films every couple of years and Juror #2 is his latest entry into a genre where, although most large studios won’t finance anymore, Eastwood’s influence and talent has allowed it to be released theatrically. Even with his long filmography and career in the history books we have reached a time in cinema where one of the most famous and talented filmmakers of the country’s new film is still receiving a limited release.

Juror #2 is a mesmerizing film reminding us of a time when edge of your seat adult dramas ruled the industry. Eastwood’s new film has garnered proof that as long he’s around adult cinema will keep thriving.

Justin Kemp has been called for routine jury duty. With his wife Allison at home with a high risk pregnancy, Justin tries his best to inform the courts of his personal duties at home. However, assuring him his jury duty will not go past the time he would normally be working, he is chosen as one of the twelve jurors to decide a homicide case against James Sythe, who has been accused of murdering his girlfriend and throwing her body into a ditch. Upon hearing the case play out in court, Justin flashes back to his own experiences on October 25th, wondering if he may have had something to do with Kendall’s death that night.

Juror #2 tackles the justice system in a non-agenda based fashion giving its audience space to form their own opinions and conclusions. The script is paced incredibly to give its characters layers that unfold as the story progresses, giving us a well rounded picture of the case being dealt with and the people who may or may not be involved. Juror #2 examines whether the truth always equals justice and whether one incident should derail the life of a good man. On the contrary, it also explores whether one’s past will predict their future and whether justice also equals protection.

Clint Eastwood’s directing for the film feels intimate as the audience feels attached to Justin and his family, making it all the more difficult to believe he may have made a dire mistake. Eastwood’s direction follows all of its characters as events unfold in real time, providing the audience with tidbits of information that feels authentic to how Justin’s realizations transpire.

The film’s focus on how a person’s past often impacts how they are seen by society and the difficulty of casting these factors aside when told to base opinions solely on facts. It explores the idea of judging people based on who they are in the present, basing judgments on the “facts” one knows about them rather than their past circumstances. This opens the film up to focus on human’s instincts and emotions that oftentimes exceed the duties they are expected to uphold.

Juror #2 is more than a courtroom drama. The predicament that Justin finds himself in makes him dig inside himself and understand how change, which can greatly impact an individual and their perception of themselves, does not always extend to how others see you. His path to recovery as an alcoholic and his character’s development mirror’s James Sythe’s past mistakes, as he too explains his desire to become a better person in court. The film asks the questions regarding whether the right thing is always the just thing and how no matter what, the perfect jury is impossible to achieve.

As fair as the justice system tries to be, at the root of it are everyday humans with their own judgements and lives to focus on. Clint Eastwood does a marvelous job incorporating all of these elements into his script without a solid answer. It is the type of drama that feels cinematic and emblematic of the country we live in and the imperfectness of it.

‘Juror #2’ Rating – 4/5

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