Juror No. 2

Juror #2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Clint Eastwood
Written by	Jonathan Abrams
Produced by	Clint Eastwood Tim Moore Jessica Meier Adam Goodman Matt Skiena
Starring	Nicholas Hoult Toni Collette J. K. Simmons Chris Messina Zoey Deutch Kiefer Sutherland
Cinematography	Yves Bélanger
Edited by	David S. Cox Joel Cox
Music by	Mark Mancina
Production companies	Dichotomy Films Gotham Group Malpaso Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	October 27, 2024 (2024-10-27) (AFI Fest) November 1, 2024 (2024-11-01) (United States)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	~$35 million
Box office	$5 million

Juror #2 is a 2024 American legal thriller film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jonathan Abrams. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons, and Kiefer Sutherland.

Juror #2 had its world premiere at AFI Fest on October 27, 2024, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 1, 2024. The film received generally positive reviews for its narrative and Hoult's performance.

Plot

Journalist and recovering alcoholic Justin Kemp is called to serve as a juror. His wife, Ally, is in the third trimester of a high-risk pregnancy, and Justin, reluctant to leave her home alone, unsuccessfully tries to avoid being selected for the jury.

The case concerns the death of Kendall Carter, who, a year prior, on October 25, had a fight with her boyfriend, James Sythe, at a local bar and stormed off into the pouring rain to walk home. The next morning, a hiker found her body under a bridge along Old Quarry Road. Sythe was arrested and charged with murdering Kendall, beating her with a blunt object and throwing her over the bridge and into the creek below. Additionally, the prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Faith Killebrew, is running for DA and hopes to attract voters with a high-profile domestic violence conviction.

At first, Killebrew's case seems strong: 1) multiple witnesses confirm Sythe drunkenly broke a beer bottle, prompting Kendall to leave the bar; 2) Sythe followed Kendall into the forest; 3) the coroner testifies that Kendall's injuries are consistent with a battery by a blunt instrument; and 4) an eyewitness standing across the bridge testifies that he saw Sythe get out of his car and look down at the spot where Kendall's body was found before driving away.

After hearing the facts of the case, Justin becomes convinced that Sythe is innocent, as he believes he might have actually been the one to kill Kendall Carter. On October 25, he was at the same bar, though he did not drink. While driving home, he received a text from Ally, and when he glanced down at his phone, hit something. He stopped and got out of his car, seeing damage to his front headlight, but no body. Seeing a sign labeled 'Deer Crossing,' he assumed he had hit a deer. After returning home, he got the vehicle fixed and lied to Ally about where the accident occurred.

Horrified that an innocent man might be convicted, Justin goes to his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, Larry, for advice on whether he should confess. Larry, a defense attorney, informs Justin that due to his prior DUI offenses, no one will believe he was sober, and Killebrew will easily put him in prison. Larry adds that the jury must reach a verdict: Killebrew has tied this case to her election campaign and will try the case as many times as necessary, so holding out and forcing a mistrial will not save Sythe.

Justin resolves to argue for a not-guilty verdict, but Sythe's public defender, Eric Resnick, is badly overworked and makes several errors. He fails to offer a competing medical opinion and appears unfamiliar with the poor nighttime visibility in the forest.

When deliberations begin, most jurors favor a conviction. Harold, who owns a flower shop, blithely remarks that Sythe should have taken a plea bargain. Adamant to avoid Sythe being convicted, Justin encourages them to use their skills to identify flaws in Killebrew's case, arguing that Sythe's life is in their hands, and so they owe him at least a few hours of their time. Harold reveals he is a retired detective and did not admit it during voir dire as no one asked about his previous employment, and argues that the eyewitness testimony, and indeed the police's entire case, could have been skewed by confirmation bias. Another juror, who has worked construction on Old Quarry Road, confirms there would have been low visibility, especially in pouring rain at night, and medical student Keiko points out that Kendall's injuries suggest she was hit by a car.

In light of all this, one of the other jurors posits Kendall's death could have been a random hit-and-run, and Justin begins to grow worried that, in his efforts to see Sythe go free, he may end up being identified as the real killer. Harold breaks the jury rules by collecting data on body shop visits following Kendall's death, and the next day, remarks that he has narrowed the search to fifteen vehicles, including, to his surprise, Justin's. When presented with this, Justin pretends to drop the papers of the repair records, revealing them to the court and prompting Judge Hollub to disqualify Harold from the jury. Later, at home, Justin asks Ally whether, if he sold their car without disclosing it had been damaged in an accident, even though it has since been repaired, it would be somehow fraudulent.

Meanwhile, Killebrew feels conflicted about the case. She visits the eyewitness and realizes that law enforcement primed him to identify Sythe at trial. Despite her duty of candor, she refuses to withdraw the charge. After Harold is removed from the jury, she takes the repair records and visits each of the vehicles' owners. While Justin's vehicle is on the list, it is registered in Ally's name, and Ally parrots Justin's cover story to Killebrew, who is suspicious about which road Ally says the accident occurred on. As Killebrew leaves, she begins to suspect Ally might be Justin's wife. Later, when Justin gets home, Ally confronts him, and he confesses the truth. Ally is appalled that Justin lied to her but keeps silent to save her family. It is revealed that Justin was in the bar on October 25 because that had been the due date of his and Ally's previous pregnancy, which miscarried. Justin vows that he will protect their family.

One juror, Marcus, categorically refuses to acquit, as he recognizes a tattoo on Sythe's neck as belonging to a drug gang that recruited Marcus's younger brother, who later died in a gang-related shootout. Unwilling to risk his family's security, Justin finds an excuse to resign from the jury, and without his influence, the remaining jurors vote to convict. Later, Justin attends the sentencing, where Sythe is sentenced to life without parole. After the sentencing, Justin sits down with Killebrew and vaguely suggests that if someone else accidentally killed Kendall, that person would not warrant harsh punishment. Killebrew argues that a year later, and with an innocent man convicted, it is no longer an accident. Justin points out that were Killebrew to go after the real killer after pushing so hard for Sythe to be convicted, she would lose her position as DA, and a "good man" would see his life and family destroyed. He implores Killebrew to leave the case alone, adding that Sythe had a history of violence, so it's not as though a completely innocent man was convinced. After Justin leaves, Killebrew checks Google and confirms Justin is Ally's husband.

Ally delivers the baby safely, much to her and Justin's delight. Meanwhile, Killebrew is elected DA and Resnick, still overworked, never follows up on Harold's leads. He arrives at Killebrew's office to congratulate her, hoping for lenient treatment in future plea negotiations. Later, Justin sells the car, and as he and Ally are playing with their daughter, the doorbell rings. Justin answers the door to find Killebrew standing there.

Cast

• Nicholas Hoult as Justin Kemp, a journalist
• Zoey Deutch as Allison "Ally" Crewson, Kemp's wife and a local schoolteacher
• Toni Collette as Faith Killebrew, the Assistant District Attorney prosecuting the Carter case
• Chris Messina as Eric Resnick, the public defender
• Kiefer Sutherland as Larry Lasker, Kemp's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor and, later, defense attorney
• Gabriel Basso as James Michael Sythe, the suspect
• Francesca Eastwood as Kendall Carter, the deceased
• J. K. Simmons as Harold, a former homicide inspector
• Amy Aquino as Judge Thelma Hollub
• Leslie Bibb as Denice Aldworth, the jury foreperson
• Cedric Yarbrough as Marcus, a juror
• Adrienne C. Moore as Yolanda, a juror
• Chikako Fukuyama as Keiko, a juror
• Zele Avradopoulos as Irene, a juror
• Drew Scheid as Brody, a juror

Production

It was announced in April 2023 that Clint Eastwood had set the project as his next film, with Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette in negotiations to star. They were confirmed the following month, with Zoey Deutch and Kiefer Sutherland also joining the cast, and Gabriel Basso entering negotiations for a role. In June, Leslie Bibb was added to the cast. In November, Chris Messina joined the cast while Basso was confirmed. J. K. Simmons, Amy Aquino, Adrienne C. Moore, Cedric Yarbrough, Chikako Fukuyama, Onix Serrano and Francesca Eastwood were added in December.

For Collette and Hoult, it would be their reunion on the big screen 22 years after playing mother and son in About a Boy (2002). For Deutch and Hoult, it would be the second time they have been seen on screen, after working together on the film Rebel in the Rye (2017).

Production began in June 2023, with filming locations including Savannah, Georgia and Los Angeles, before it was suspended in July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Production resumed in November upon the conclusion of the strike.

Post-production had wrapped by April 2024.

Music

By September 2024, Mark Mancina had composed the score for the film.

Release

Juror #2 premiered as the closing film of the 38th edition of the film festival AFI Fest on October 27, 2024; the event continues a long-standing relationship between Eastwood and the American Film Institute (AFI), which previously launched the world premieres of American Sniper (2014), J. Edgar (2011), and Richard Jewell (2019) at the festival.

Controversy over American limited release

Warner Bros. Pictures initially envisioned Juror #2 as a direct-to-streaming release on Max. However, Warner Bros. gave the film a limited release on November 1, 2024. The film was released in fewer than 50 domestic theaters, and Warner Bros. is expected to not report box office results.

Variety characterized Warner Bros.' decision to deny the film a wide release as "a peculiar approach for a filmmaker who still has commercial appeal", noting that Eastwood had been making films for Warner Bros. for 50 years and was still delivering major commercial successes, including American Sniper (2014), Sully (2016), and The Mule (2018). The New Yorker's Richard Brody called it an "unmistakable" insult, but found a silver lining, explaining that "Eastwood has been an artist all along. His mass-market popularity can now be recognized for what it is: a happy accident that has made the mighty scope of his career possible but is inessential to its place in the history of cinema."

Vulture's Bilge Ebiri suggested that Warner Bros.' decision implied deep problems with the modern-day studio system, suggesting that "Eastwood, for all his genre cred and iconic stature, is one of the few major filmmakers left making studio-financed adult dramas. To the modern studio executive, he must look like a glitch in the matrix — not an artist to be protected, but an error to be corrected."

International

The film is being given a wide release in the UK, showing at more than 300 cinemas nationwide.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 75 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A legal thriller with a heavy conscience, Juror #2 is less a summation of Clint Eastwood's storied directorial career than another terrific reminder of his knack for plain-spoken drama." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Vulture's Bilge Ebiri commented that Juror #2 inverts many tropes of the courtroom drama genre, writing that while in an ordinary legal thriller, "the system usually prevailed" and "justice would be served, even if it took a few extra tries," Eastwood's drama is a film "about how the system can fail even as everybody tries their best." He added that Eastwood's perspective is mirrored by "own growing cynicism about the effectiveness of [government and legal] institutions."

Several critics noted that Juror #2 did not fit a traditional political narrative. IndieWire's Christian Zilko called the film "one of the best studio films of 2024," writing that while the film "introduces a reverence for law, order, and due process that seems to suit a lifelong conservative, it eventually reveals a more apolitical patriotism that’s uniquely Eastwoodian." The New Yorker's Richard Brody agreed that while Eastwood is "one of the most distinctive and original political filmmakers ... the politics [the film] brings to life is essentially, and forcefully, anti-political. ... Eastwood treats celebrity as a diabolical tool and sees the gap between publicity and reality as a trap door to hell."

The New York Times' Manohla Dargis praised the film and Hoult's performance, but commented that the visuals were more functional than impressive. Variety's Peter Debruge added that while "as always, Eastwood respects our intelligence," the film "ranks among his quietest films, forgoing spectacle in favor of self-reflection."

External links

• Juror No. 2 at IMDb