In recent years, Clint Eastwood‘s films have been less popular with critics and at the box office, but the award-winning director and Hollywood legend maintains a firm grip as a good storyteller. With Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette (reuniting after starring as mother and son in the excellent About a Boy 22 years ago) leading the cast, the drama Juror No. 2 is slow and simple, but with a shocking ending.

I’ll talk about the spoiler later because there’s no way to avoid it. One of the most talked about details is that, since he’s 94 years old, Juror No. 2 is considered possibly the last film directed by Clint Eastwood. I’m a bit of a contrarian and think there may be another: he’s not a director who likes frills or excessive detail in his projects. He spends a few months filming, has few takes, and therefore doesn’t take long between one production and another. And that’s why I hope we get another one.

Clint Eastwood loves to force his audience to think without giving them a straight answer. His protagonists may have good intentions, but their past failures always seem to catch up with them and leave them at a moral crossroads. The story of Juror No. 2 follows Justin Kemp (Hoult), a family man who serves as a juror in a high-profile murder trial.

The film explores themes of guilt, justice, and the effects of personal decisions on the legal system. Justin is apparently “straight-laced,” which is why he is also influential among the other jurors. He tries to get out of the summons because his wife is pregnant after they went through a traumatic miscarriage. Of course, appearances are deceiving: he is a former alcoholic with a secret that is only revealed to him by chance. When the lawyers begin to speak, he realizes that the defendant is innocent. Why does he know this? Because he was the one who accidentally killed the victim.

From this discovery onwards, we anxiously follow Justin’s decision: does he confess and go to jail? Does he keep quiet and stay free? He tries the middle path, which is obviously complex. I’ll spare you Clint’s conclusion, which is moving.

The script is not perfect because that is not the main point. It wants to leave us in doubt about what is right or wrong. And it finds in Nicholas Hoult, the actor most committed to diversifying his filmography in yet another great performance. He, who was a child actor in England, managed to move between action franchises, period dramas, comedies, and dramas with equal talent. He manages to convey the contradictory emotions of someone who made a mistake and wants to be fair, without finding a happy alternative.

There is no easy answer and Justin Kemp’s journey is tense. If Juror No. 2 is truly Eastwood’s last film, he ends his career with a work that echoes the themes that marked his filmography: human fragility in the face of difficult choices and the inevitable consequences of decisions. But, as always, Eastwood prefers to leave the doors open — for interpretations, debates, and, who knows, for a next project. If this is a goodbye, it is a goodbye worthy of his legend; if not, we can only hope for another masterful tale.

Pesquisar

Pesquisar