Slap in the Face for Clint Eastwood

[silverscreenselect]

Clint Eastwood's latest, and probably last, movie is being released today, but you probably won't get a chance to see it in theaters. It's called Juror #2 and it's a legal thriller, as you might guess. It stars Nicholas Hoult as a juror at a murder trial of a man accused of killing his girlfriend whose badly battered body was found near a bar where the two fought earlier in the evening. What Hoult knows, but no one else does, is that he was driving on the same highway that night in a bad rainstorm when he hit something he thought was a deer, but he now realizes may have been the dead woman. His moral dilemma is the focus of the movie. It has a solid supporting cast, including Toni Colette, J.K. Simmons, and Kiefer Sutherland. The movie is set in Savannah, where Eastwood made Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The film has gotten very good reviews, with some reviewers calling it one of the best studio films of the year. I haven't seen it yet but I plan to go next week. According to reviews, it's an amazing work by a 94-year-old director.

At least, I'll get a chance to see it because it's playing in one theater here in Atlanta with no advertising and only one trailer I've seen (and I see a lot of trailers at the movies I go to each week). At the same time, the Tom Hanks/Robin Wright movie Here has tons of commercials, and Liam Neeson's latest action film is also opening this weekend at a bunch of theaters. Juror #2 is playing on 50 screens in the entire country, most, as you might guess, in places like NY and LA. There are no plans to release it wider later in the month. It will probably show up on Max in January or February. There's a possibility Eastwood may get an Oscar nomination (for his age as much as anything) and Hoult as well.

Clint Eastwood has been an amazing director for the last forty years, with a body of work as good as or better than almost anyone else (including two Oscars). He deserves better than the shabby treatment he's getting from Warner Brothers.

[vettech]

I haven't heard anything about this, but the premise sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

I hope you get to see it and I look forward to your review.

[silverscreenselect]

I hope you get to see it and I look forward to your review.

I did see it, and it's a very good movie. It's his best film of the last decade. A large part of the movie takes place in the jury room after the trial, with the movie playing at times like an updated version of 12 Angry Men. Toni Collette is the prosecuting attorney who is running for county district attorney during the trial, and she views a successful prosecution in this high profile case as a boost for her campaign. Hoult's character is a recovering alcoholic whose wife is due to deliver right around the end of the trial. He stopped at the bar the night the woman died and ordered a drink but says he didn't drink it. Kiefer Sutherland is his AA sponsor who is also a local attorney. Sutherland tells him if he comes forward to confess, the defendant will be acquitted but Hoult is likely to go to jail himself.

Excellent performances all around, including some of the lesser known actors. One interesting trivia detail. Clint Eastwood's daughter plays the victim in the movie (there are several flashbacks to various witnesses' testimony as to what happened in the bar). I thought the ending was perfect. There are no black and white characters in the movie, and everyone's actions are understandable and to some extent justified or excusable.

I had one quibble with the legalities. One juror was J.K. Simmons who was a retired police detective from somewhere up north who came to Savannah and started a florist business. The other jurors are shocked to learn he's an ex-cop. He explains he didn't mention it during voir dire because no one asked him. In Georgia, in a case of this nature, they give jurors a questionnaire with standard questions to answer en masse so the attorneys don't have to waste everyone's time individually asking the same question over and over (Are you related to any of the parties in the case?) One question they always include in a criminal case is whether anyone is or has been a member of law enforcement. Simmons would have had to answer yes and would probably have been bounced from the jury by the defense attorney before the trial ever started.

You probably won't get a chance to see it in the theater unless the studio changes its mind, but definitely catch it on streaming.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Thank you

[silverscreenselect]

Juror #2 will debut on Max December 20. They're trying to save some face by claiming this is a Max Original, but their plan had been to release it to buy or rent on Amazon, Apple, and similar outlets in December and then schedule it on Max in January or February. I guess the backlash got them to change their plans and move up the Max release.

I highly recommend this for anyone with Max.