Triggered

In "Juror #2," Clinton Eastwood scores another direct hit

I’ve seen lots of references to this movie in recent months but couldn’t find it in a theater, happy to discover you can now rent it for a few bucks on Amazon Prime. It looks at the outset like a standard courtroom drama in which we consider whether a guy killed his girlfriend after an argument at a bar in small-town Georgia. But it rests on an unusually compelling high-concept premise: a reluctant juror who discovers to his horror that he was not only present at the scene, but may be inadvertently responsible for the crime. Nicholas Hoult—a young actor who is rapidly accumulating a distinguished body of work beyond superhero movies—leads a fine cast that includes seasoned pros such as J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, and Toni Collette—plays a recovering alcoholic and the husband of a wife (Zooey Deutsch) who’s about to have a baby. He’s wracked with anxiety and guilt upon realizing his role in the case, but is afraid to come forward for the risk doing so poses for his fledgling family.

The other person worth mentioning here, besides screenwriter Jonathan Abrams, is Juror #2’s director and producer: Clint Eastwood. That’s 94-year-old Clint Eastwood. It’s truly shocking that Eastwood, who began directing films a half-century ago after decades as an actor, is still at it. And still good at it: this is an exceptionally taut drama with no wasted motion with the camera or anything else. There’s a brisk professionalism about Juror #2, which invokes antecedents like Twelve Angry Men without feeling beholden to them in a movie where even minor characters, like Amy Aquino’s fine judge and the other eleven jurors, are elucidated with fluid skill.

Actually, the movie that Juror #2 brings to mind is a very different Eastwood picture: his 1992 Western Unforgiven, which won a Best Picture Oscar. Like that movie, Juror #2 raises difficult and haunting questions about the nature of justice that are more likely to haunt than satisfy you. And yet it does so with an arresting narrative that propels you forward nonetheless. One has to wonder if this will be Eastwood’s last movie. If so, he’s ending on a strong note. It’s humbling to witness such durable, restless talent.