“What are the chances, eh?” said Ryan Gilbey in The Guardian. “First you get picked for jury duty even though your pregnant wife might deliver your child before you can deliver a verdict.” Then, you realise that you alone know for certain that the defendant accused of murder is innocent – “because you are the guilty party. Small world!” That is the setup for “Juror #2”, directed “with intermittent drollery” by Clint Eastwood.
The film’s protaganist, Justin, is played by Nicholas Hoult, who proves a “perfect fit for the everyman whose secrets emerge in conflicting flashbacks”. We learn that when Justin was driving home one night, he hit what he thought at the time was a deer – but which he starts to suspect was, in fact, a woman, and the victim in this case. Suspense is “kept on a low flame, but the film offers cosy pleasures”, and it is nice to see Hoult reunited with Toni Collette (the prosecuting attorney), who 20-plus years ago played his mother in “About a Boy”.
“Juror #2” is getting a wide release in the UK, but is only being shown in 50 cinemas in the US, which seems an “injustice”, said Johnny Oleksinski in the New York Post. Although now 94, Eastwood “still knows how to make a damn good movie”: this is “morally complex, smart fare”, and even if it is a bit clunky in places, you find yourself constantly wondering: “Could this happen to me?”
Eastwood’s films have been ropey of late, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday, but this one is “rock solid” – “cleverly constructed, very nicely acted and beautifully paced”. He has hinted that this may be his last movie; if it is, it “would be a very classy swan-song”.