Juror number 2: Clint Eastwood hasn’t finished asking us his questions yet

It will be the last film of Clint Eastwood? We have been asked this regularly in recent years, every time, due to obvious age limitations: the director turned 94 last May. And we are asked this again today, with the release in theaters of Juror number 2. Certainly, if that were the case, it would be a farewell to cinema in style. Why Juror number 2 it’s a classic film, an iron script and a moral dilemma at the centre, a legal drama which points the finger at the viewer and forces him to reflect: an exercise in ethics but also an invitation to review our judgments and prejudices. And it’s also a bit of the story of the revenge of Clint Eastwood, who was given up for artistically dead for years, and with an American distributor who wanted to send the film directly to streaming: it’s a shame that the reviews and public reception are very positive.

It is the story of Justin Kemp (played by Nicholas Hoult), an ordinary man, a decent man, a future father with an alcoholic past, who finds himself on the jury of a murder trial, but soon (it’s not a spoiler: it’s the fulcrum of the film) realizes that the killer is him: that deer that he thought he had hit with his car on a dark and stormy night, was actually the girl for whose death an innocent man is now accused. Hence the dilemma: defend the truth and fight for justice or save himself?

As in Clint Eastwood’s style, the questions are very clear and the thesis even more clear: the American judicial system is fallacious, because it is based on imperfect mechanisms, because convictions are often based on prejudices, the famous bias cognitive; and so, a boy with tattoos and some problems with the law in the past is the perfect femicide suspect to condemn. And we are like those jurors, who comment without knowing and condemn innocent people in our daily lives.

The moral dilemma then involves us all: does truth always correspond to justice? Is it right to ruin the life of a poor boy and his family for an involuntary gesture? But is it right for an innocent person to pay the price for other people’s mistakes? It’s clear what Clint thinks, giving an open ending and leaving us with a lot of questions in our heads. Perhaps a slightly rushed ending, but still of great impact.

Juror number 2 is a moral thriller that evokes classics of the genre such as The word to the jurors by Sidney Lumet, with a cast of well-rounded characters, including the ambitious prosecutor played by the magnificent Toni Collette and the seasoned lawyer by JK Simmons. It is a very classic film, Eastwood chooses an essential, almost minimalist approach, with a direction without great intuition, he is interested in enhancing the intensity of the performances and the emotional dynamics between the characters. The tension is all in the protagonist’s ethical conflict, an adventure more compelling than an action movie. If this will be his farewell to cinema, it is a farewell that leaves the audience with more questions than answers, demonstrating that great cinema still knows how to make people reflect. Regardless of age.