Director Clint Eastwood, career action star turned elder statesman of the thinking person’s dramatic film, returns to the scene of the crime — and punishment — in the sturdy and somber Georgia-set procedural Juror #2 (A-). Nicholas Hoult plays a novelist and expectant father serving as a juror in a prominent murder trial and finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma capable of swaying the verdict and potentially convicting or freeing the accused killer. Hoult is fantastic in the nuanced role, relatable and believable in service of a somewhat far-fetched premise. Many of the tropes of courtroom thrillers are present in the story but presented with multiple points of view as the scales of justice prove to be complex forms of measurement. Eastwood artfully and efficiently dispatches the story with wonderful performances all around, including Toni Collette as a showy district attorney, Gabriel Basso as the accused and J.K. Simmons as a wily colleague in the fraught deliberations. The movie quietly observes and subtly exposes vulnerabilities of the justice system and hearkens back to the director’s other Savannah-set feature Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It’s an excellent companion piece to some of his best and most thoughtful morality plays such as Million Dollar Baby, Sully, Unforgiven, American Sniper and The Hereafter. It is old-fashioned on the surface but resonates splendidly in modern times and is highly recommended fare for adults and thoughtful teens who want to see (along with other films like Conclave and The Brutalist) what it used to look like in Hollywood’s heyday to craft and consume a deft and deliberate drama.
Even when he “phones it in,” Ridley Scott, a film director at the height of his powers, brings compelling dimension and scope to his movies. His latest, All the Money in the World (B-) chronicles the kidnapping, ransom and attempted rescue of the heir to the Getty family, notorious for wealth generated through oil and a legacy from the accumulation of exquisite paintings and antiquities. An exploration of the art of a deal and the heart of a family should lend this crime thriller even more gravitas, but it’s largely a straightforward procedural. The stakes should also feel higher throughout the film, but the story and script give short shrift to its collection of characters. Michelle Williams as mother of a kidnapped teen, Christopher Plummer as the oil magnate himself, Mark Wahlberg as his negotiator and deal maker and Charlie Plummer (no real-life relation to his co-star!) as the teen in turmoil all turn in serviceable performances but far from their collective best. The action is occasionally gripping, and it’s a story that hasn’t been told. But this falls in Scott’s category of solid thrillers with vivid period detail but little amazing to grab you (his American Gangster falls squarely in this breed of his films). It’s notable as both a meditation on the price of wealth and a cinematic master class in how to erase and re-cast an actor’s central performance just weeks before a film’s release (bye bye, Kevin Spacey in the now Christopher Plummer role). All the talent in the world doesn’t always add up to a masterpiece.