Review: No cinema buff should miss 'Juror #2'

At 94, Clint Eastwood knows that each new film he directs may be his last. That puts "Juror #2" in a tough spot. Though this indictment of a broken justice system may be his final screen venture, it is hardly his best, since the original script by Jonathan Abrams is gutted with holes that expand exponentially with each scene.

Still, the tense, terrific legal thriller that Eastwood and a standout cast make of admittedly thin material is an artful provocation that is definitely worth your time and attention as it fervently investigates the ethical quicksand that drags down many of its characters.

As Dirty Harry and in his "Man with No Name" horse operas, Eastwood used to kill without breaking a sweat. But after 1994's "Unforgiven, the Western which won him his first Oscars for director and best picture, Eastwood developed a conscience that pushed into moral issues.

The same applies to "Juror #2," Eastwood's 40th film as director. The reliably terrific Nicholas Hoult ("Mad Max: Fury Road," "The Menu") stars as Justin Kemp, a magazine writer who finds himself reporting for jury duty when he'd rather be home supporting his very pregnant wife Ally (Zoey Deutch, wasted), who suffered a miscarriage on their last attempt at parenthood.

Still, patriotic duty compels Justin to serve in a Georgia courtroom in Savannah, where most of the potential jurors are eager to get the damn thing over with. As a recovering alcoholic, Justin feels a connection to defendant James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), a hotheaded druggie on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Kendall (Francesca Eastwood, Clint's real-life daughter).

In flashbacks, Eastwood lays out scenes of Kendall in a bar fight with the abusive James and storming homeward alone in pounding rain, her body found covered in blood the next morning in a gulley. All evidence points to James in the mind of prosecutor Faith Killebrew (the great Toni Collette), who thinks putting James away will juice her campaign for district attorney.

The pileup of complications continues as public defender Eric Resnick (Chris Resnick) realizes he's facing a losing battle. That when Justin, in one of the plot contrivances that the film keeps tripping over, realizes he was in the same bar on the same rainy night, and though he didn't drink, he remembers his car hitting what he thought was a deer.

Could James have accidentally hit and killed Kendall? Eager to confess, he's told by his lawyer and AA sponsor Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland) that no jury would ever believe he was sober that night, leaving him to face a life sentence with no parole.

What Justin does next in a copycat move out of "12 Angry Men" is become a holdout against his fellow jurors who want James convicted -- only Harold (the ever-excellent J.K. Simmons), an ex-cop on the jury, joins Justin on voting not guilty. But the case looks stacked against them.

Trust Eastwood to never run away from an uphill fight, preferring the complicated gray area between heroism and villainy to challenge himself and his audience.

On that level, "Juror #2" works like gangbusters. No cinema buff should miss it. So, boo on Warner Bros, the studio Eastwood helped keep alive for decades, for reducing the number of theaters where his latest is available. A legend deserves better. See "Juror #2" and make his day.