Jury Duty

We're pulling into "prestige movie" season. Nearly every such season has a legal drama in the mix, and this year it comes from writer Jonathan Abrams and director Clint Eastwood: Juror #2.

When Justin Kemp is called up for jury duty, he is shocked to find he has a personal connection to the case. When this goes undiscovered by the lawyers and he is actually seated on the jury, he finds himself in a moral quandary. He wants to steer his fellow jurors to the right outcome... but he must do it without confessing to his own rapidly growing web of lies.

This movie asks you to accept a lot to get the story rolling: wild coincidence, gross negligence, and much, much more. Different people will possibly think different elements of it are "a bridge too far," but I doubt many will just buy the whole premise. This is not a "this could happen to anyone" kind of story. This is more a situation where... sure, you could imagine this eventually happening to some person, somewhere, and this is that story. And I suppose the script tries to lampshade these issues as much as it can.

Ultimately, though, you've just gotta roll with it. And at least the acting is here to help. Nicholas Hoult plays Justin Kemp, and it's a big, meaty role -- real "tip of the iceberg" stuff where almost none of the emotional performance is conveyed in dialogue. Hoult has to convey everything with just a look, and is given very few moments of release; instead, we see him and his character just get wound tighter and tighter over the course of two hours.

The movie doesn't ask very much of its other stars, though. Mind you, there are some great actors here -- Toni Collette and J.K. Simmons are always welcome in pretty much anything. Kiefer Sutherland is well deployed as an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor who you sense has been through the wringer himself. Chris Messina is a perfectly credibly public defender. But none of these performers are really doing any heavy lifting here: this movie is all on Nicholas Hoult's shoulders.

The results are something of a "through the looking glass" version of the recent Anatomy of a Fall. What that movie wants to keep secret and leave open to doubt, this movie opens up to its audience. Juror #2 also feels like more approachable "popcorn" fare -- which is perhaps why, even though it's arriving in prestige season, I don't hear much buzz about it for awards.

But it does entertain well enough. I give Juror #2 a B. Once you're over the hump of plausibility, the moral dilemma makes for a fun little suspense thriller.