Juror No. 2 is guilty of perfunctory visuals but also of delivering solid courtroom drama thrills

On the outside, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a normal fellow. He's a journalist and recovering alcoholic who leads a low-key life with his wife Allison Crewson (Zoey Deutch). With Crewson pregnant with their first child, Kemp's life is about to drastically evolve. Before all that, though, he's got to attend jury duty. A seemingly routine part of domestic life, Kemp finds himself witnessing the trial of James Michael Sythe (Gabriel Basso), a man accused of murdering his girlfriend, Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood) one year ago. Assistant District Attorney Faith Killebrew (Tony Collette) is the prosecuting lawyer on this case incredibly determined that Sythe sees justice.

While she's convinced Sythe's the murderer, a pit in Kemp's stomach begins to form in that jury box. One year ago, he was driving his car out late at night. In the pouring rain, he hit what he thought was a deer...right on the bridge over where Carter's body was found. With Sythe unblinkingly maintaining his innocence and every new piece of information he learns about Carter’s injuries, Kemp realizes he is responsible for her death. Now, he’s caught in an unthinkable scenario. Does he tell the truth and destroy his family? Will he lie and send an innocent man to prison for life? These are the quandaries Kemp grapples. All the while, he's pressing the other 11 other jurors to not just immediately leap to “guilty” in their scrambling for a verdict.

Director Clint Eastwood has spent the last few decades helming increasingly rigid movies about "American heroes". Lifeless reverence weighed down misfires like The 15:17 to Paris and Richard Jewell like an albatross. Juror No. 2 is a bit of a breath of fresh air simply because it's something simpler, less hagiographic. The screenplay by Jonathan Abrams is an original work. It's more concerned with twists and turns than satisfying the fanbases of Chris Kyle or The Four Seasons. It doesn’t hurt too that Juror No. 2 benefits from opening in a cinematic landscape largely devoid of other courtroom dramas.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say. The era of inescapable John Grisham adaptations has given way to multiplexes that never house titles like Anatomy of a Murder or Inherit the Wind. It’s been a while since one could see jurors squabbling. Ditto judges sternly telling lawyers to “watch yourself”. That reality it’s easier to appreciate Juror No. 2’s simpler pleasures. Scenes depicting the various outsized juror personalities bouncing off one another (an unexpected friendship between a young stoner and an elderly lady is a mild hoot) are especially fun. Granted, that modern context doesn’t suddenly turn Juror No. 2 into 12 Angry Men, Anatomy of a Fall, or My Cousin Vinny. But it doesn’t hurt the proceedings, certainly.

It also helps that Nicholas Hoult is the actor anchoring Juror No. 2. Even when the visuals and story opt for the safe and familiar, Hoult’s doing great work in the lead role. Between this and his terrifically wicked work in The Order, the former Warm Bodies leading man is becoming adept at eyeball acting. In playing Kemp, Hoult keeps his body composed. However, he exudes such tremendous pain and internal conflict in those pupils. He doesn’t go big and brash with gestures or line deliveries to sell what’s inside this man’s soul. One look at his eyes speaks volumes.

That assured, subtle acting really makes both Kemp’s bottled-up uncertainty and his status as an external everyman incredibly believable. In supporting roles, a variety of welcome character actors lend a bit more depth and entertainment to their roles than what’s on the page. Cedric Yarbrough, for instance, plays Marcus, a juror determined to put Sythe behind bars. It's a character that hands Yarbrough a lot of clumsy expository dialogue. However, he lends enough lived-in conviction to Marcus to make the man compelling. Collette, meanwhile, is superb establishing Killebrew as an initially determined cold-blood adversarial figure. Then, she effortlessly peels back more layers of nuance on this attorney. That Collette, she really can do anything.

If anything lets down Juror No. 2’s greatest screenwriting and acting attributes, it’s the visuals. Unfortunately, Eastwood can’t shake the stale visual style plaguing so many of his modern directorial efforts. Thank the maker, at least, American Sniper and Richard Jewell's weird color grading and persistent dark shadows are absent. However, too much of the movie sags when it needs to carry a more propulsive, suspenseful aura. Key intense sequences like Kemp and Harold (J.K. Simmons) getting called before a judge lack panache in lighting and blocking. It’s hard to be on the edge of your seat when the on-screen imagery isn’t strikingly rendered. Some incredibly clumsy exterior shots indicating the passing of time for the jurors reinforce these weirdly phoned-in imagery impulses.

Joel and David S. Cox's editing is often similarly perfunctory. However, this department has the most verve of any Juror No. 2 visual element whenever the duo engages in cross-cutting. There are some nicely timed transitions between elements like competing closing arguments or Kemper getting flashes of the past in his present courtroom scenario. A late sequence involving Marcus tensely confronting Kemp also benefits from these kinds of cuts. As the camera jumps between this juror's accusatory words and Kemp fiddling with an AA badge, some real tension creeps into the frame. Preciseness permeates the best of Juror No. 2's editing. The cinematography and directing, meanwhile, are a bit more aimless.

Rudimentary visuals and some throwaway supporting roles (Deutch is charming, but has nothing to do with Crewson) can’t dilute Juror No. 2’s reasonably engaging ambiance. It’s a perfectly agreeable way to spend two hours that largely delivers the goods for courtroom drama devotees. Best of all, it lets talented performers like Hoult and Collette flex their acting chops within intimate confines. If this is truly the finale of Clint Eastwood’s directorial career, he didn’t go out with anything close to an all-time masterpiece. But a solid thriller isn’t a bad capper on his extensive filmography. Too bad he couldn't find one more role for that American Sniper fake baby, though....