Ivan Radford | On 22, Aug 2025

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, JK Simmons, Zoey Deutch, Gabriel Basso
Certificate: 12

“Given your history, there isn’t a jury in the world that would believe you.” That’s the blunt assessment of lawyer Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland) to his friend, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult). The fact that Justin is the eponymous Juror #2 in Clint Eastwood’s courtroom drama makes Justin’s predicament all the more complicated.

The case in hand? The death of Kendall, a young woman, who had a fight with her boyfriend, James (Gabriel Basso), a year ago. Kendall’s body was found under a nearby bridge the following day and James was charged with her murder. Justin initially requests not to be on duty for the case, as his wife, Allison (Zoey Deutch), is pregnant and days away from her due date. That soon becomes the least of his worries, though: as the case unfolds in court, he realises that he knows the night in question. And that James definitely didn’t kill her. The problem? If he reveals that to anyone, he potentially implicates himself.

The result is a brilliant spin on the traditional legal drama, with Justin finding himself in the Henry Fonda role of talking a room of people out of guilty verdict – but with a reluctance that matches his conviction. What matters more, justice or self-preservation? And, if he’s really following his jury duty, is basing his actions and decisions on evidence that hasn’t been presented at trial undermining the entire process anyway? As Sutherland’s enjoyably frank Larry sums up: “You’re screwed.”

Jonathan Abrams’ script has fun twisting and turning through a string of moral contortions. There’s the complication of having a former homicide detective as a fellow juror (played with headstrong arrogance by JK Simmons), the challenge of seeking the truth in an age of armchair detectives and true-crime podcasts, and the pressure placed on the case by prosecutor Faith (a game Toni Collette), who wants a guilty verdict to advance her political career.

But the success of all these components hangs on the strength of its central performance, and Clint Eastwood knows it: he directs each stripped-down sequence with a handsome but clean approach, knowing when to delve into close-up conversations and when to pause for silence. Most of all, he gives his cast room to breathe, and Nicholas Hoult doesn’t squander the opportunity. He’s magnetic as the conflicted family man, his own recovery from alcoholism tainting how the law might perceive him but equally instilling in him the importance of compassion. It’s a beautifully moving and sympathetic performance, which leaves us invested in his decision while also not knowing what he’s going to decide. That uncertainty takes us all the way to the end credits. A jury might not believe him, but there’s no doubting that this charmingly old-fashioned drama is a riveting piece of cinema.

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