Swan Song

Juror # 2 a film by Clint Eastwood.  With Nicholas Hoult, Zoey Deutch, Toni Collette, Gabriel Basso.  ****

The King of the Grade B movie is finally surrendering his crown.  The news is that, after directing this movie, Clint Eastwood has decided to retire, at age (almost) 95.  God knows he deserves a rest.  But I don’t know what we’ll do for Grade B movies.

I used to think that any movie that showed extensive scenes of someone driving around the countryside, just to let us know that that person was going somewhere, was Grade B.  My memory is that Play Misty for Me (which I actually enjoyed) had a number of such scenes.  But I think the key feature is the heavy-handed way the movie makes its points, so even Joe Six Pack, toward the end of his six pack, can nod with satisfaction.  “I see what he’s sayin’.”  The Christ symbolism at the end of Gran Torino was a great example.  Or in this movie, when something happens in the courtroom that seems jarringly unfair, the camera lingers on the scales of justice, or the motto In God We Trust.  Joe Six Pack, with a quiet belch.  “Ain’t that ironic.”

The truly weird plot might also be a clue.  How about a movie in which a guy is selected for the jury in a murder trial, and partway into the proceedings realizes that he himself might be the killer?  Could you actually take that idea and make a work of art out of it?  I don’t see how.  You could definitely make an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a magazine writer and ex-alcoholic whose wife is coming toward the end of what he calls a high-risk pregnancy (I’m not sure what that means, but the couple had lost a previous child).  His wife Allison (Zoey Deutch) is definitely hugely pregnant.  He tries to get out of jury duty with that as an excuse, but the judge points out that he works a nine-to-five job every day (actually he doesn’t, if he’s a writer), and she’ll get him home at the same hour he would normally return.  He’s chosen for the jury, in a murder trial.

He soon realizes he knows this case a little too well (that should have disqualified him, but he doesn’t say anything).  On the night in question, the suspect, James (Gabriel Basso) has a very public fight in a bar with his girlfriend Kendell (Francesca Eastwood, daughter of you know who).  They stomp into the parking lot and continue the fight, on a night when it was pouring rain; she walks away and he walks after her.  According to the prosecutor Faith (Toni Collette)—who is running for re-election on a strongly pro-woman ticket—he follows her, bludgeons her with some heavy object that was never found, and throws her into a ravine.  According to the defense lawyer, Eric (Chris Messina), he got in his car, turned around, and went home.  Faith finds that unlikely: what kind of man would let his girlfriend walk away on that kind of night?  (Maybe the kind who had decided not to murder her.  But she doesn’t mention that.)

Justin was actually at the bar that night, nursing a drink that he never drank.  It was the anniversary of his daughter’s death, and he was so overcome with emotion that he almost ended his four years of sobriety.  He then drove off, still emotionally upset, and felt his car hit something.  He thought it was a deer, but when he got out couldn’t find anything.  It may be, though, that he hit Kendell and she flew into the ravine.  He got out of his car and looked, but couldn’t see anything down there because it was too dark.

He almost immediately goes to a lawyer, Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland) and asks what he should do.  Lasker claims that, with his history, a jury would never believe he didn’t touch the drink, and would convict him of manslaughter.  (I’m not sure I agree.  There is such a thing as a recovering alcoholic.)  He’d do heavy time in the slammer and would be deserting his wife and new child.  He decides he can’t risk it.

It’s a little unfair that the only courtroom drama I can compare this to is Twelve Angry Men, which was a great work of drama and made a great movie.  In comparison with that group, this jury is pathetic.  After hearing the same evidence the viewer has, ten are ready to convict, and want to do it right then.  One juror wishes the defendant had taken a plea deal (we hear his reasoning later) and Justin argues that they at least need to talk things over a little.  I have to say, I heard what the jurors did, and I didn’t think the prosecution had even come close to proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt.  I definitely thought the jury should discuss things before putting a man away for life.  They didn’t seem to care.  This whole thing was a waste of their valuable time (which they could have spent scrolling on their phones).  I hope that, if I’m ever up before a jury, I have a more responsible group than this.

It would be unfair to say more about the plot, but I have to admit I found it a little loose.  I did think the ending was powerful, and something of a surprise.  The acting was good, the pacing fine.  I think the script is what doomed the movie to Grade B.  It often is.  But Clint took to it like a homing pigeon finding his roost.

The weird thing is that, in pursuing his odd career, Eastwood has made some excellent movies.  Million Dollar Baby comes to mind.  Unforgiven.  He also made what I think of as my favorite Eastwood movie, though it certainly has grade B elements, Hereafter.  That movie was saved by great and believable acting by its central character, Matt Damon, and a certain restraint in the telling.

I actually like Clint Eastwood.  He’s a shining star in the Grade B firmament.

He may be twinkling.  But his movies will survive forever.  Which means twenty years.