Juror #2
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Last night my partner and I watched Juror #2. The premise is the character played by Nicholas Hoult (Justin) is selected to sit on a jury, and during the course of the case realizes that he may actually have been the one who cause the death. Wild, right?
He has a pregnant wife at home, and we learn he has a history with alcoholism. Much of the film takes place in the jury room, and apparently has a “12 Angry Men” vibe (I’ve shockingly not seen that but my partner mentioned it a couple of times). Spoilers below.
. . .
One thing I did like about this film was that Justin does seek counsel from an attorney pretty much right away. I feel like with another writer he would just sort of wander his way through and hope for the best. Now, the news he gets from the lawyer isn’t great, so he doesn’t actually do anything about it, but still.
The courtroom case as presented, however, is pretty weak, and I can’t tell if it’s meant to be an indictment of the justice system in that it’s so clearly obvious there isn’t nearly enough evidence to charge, let alone convict the accused, or if it’s just really lazy writing. Like obviously they aren’t going to show days of testimony in a two hour film, but the medical examiner only being asked like two questions? The defense not presenting any sort of alternate theory other than ‘my guy didn’t do it’? Wild.
Another thing I hated is that Justin doesn’t confide in his wife. COME ON. Like, tell her the truth, tell her why the attorney doesn’t think he should turn himself in. Talk through options. Make this really fucking important life decision together.
The aspect I did like was how the whole situation fucked with the prosecutor (played by Toni Colette). She’s a week away from an election where she’s running for the district attorney position, and she slowly accepts that she might have it wrong. It’s wild that she didn’t realize this sooner, but whatever.
Some of the acting was also a bit over the top – some of the jurors (actually, pretty much all of them) feel very one dimensional, and almost like caricatures of humans.
Even more spoilers below.
. . .
The originally accused man is convicted. So then we have a scene between the prosecutor and Justin where he lays out that the prosecutor changing her approach will hurt everyone – Justin is someone who has come around and fully changed from four years ago, he has a brand new daughter, the convicted man was someone who has contributed to criminal actions in society, and the (now DA) herself will be shown as ineffective. And I like that she’s wrestling with this conundrum, and also that as the film ends, it’s not 100% clear what will happen next. Usually I find that annoying, but I think it worked here.
I like the overall themes of the film – the justice system doesn’t work for anyone, acting certain about guilt or innocence doesn’t work without actual evidence, and what is the point of the justice system itself?
I’m not going to watch this again, but I think it’s a completely fine film.
