Juror #2

Not giving Juror #2 a wide release in cinemas is yet another crime we can add to Warner Bros.'s prestigious repertoire because even at 94 years old Clint Eastwood has still got it. Calling this effective would be a severe understatement, there's no easy way out here. A nailbiting and thoroughly engrossing examination of Eastwood's career-long infatuation with guilt, justice and the limitations of American law, turning the courtroom drama on its head with a fantastic script from Jonathan Abrams, the suspense is simply unbearable at points. Eastwood's taut and marvellous direction is here in spades, all backed by a very engrossing score by Mark Mancina, but it's truly the performances that had me teetering on the edge for the film's runtime. Nicholas Hoult never overplays the torment boiling beneath the surface, expressing internal panic to the viewer but not to the others around him. While Toni Collette and J. K. Simmons deliver equally fantastic performances, although, truthfully, I'm a little disheartened that Kiefer Sutherland's role was so limited. Like the gunslingers of his past, if Juror #2 ends up being Eastwood's final film (as horrible as that thought is) then the man has gone out in a triumphant blaze of glory.