Anything by Clint Eastwood has something going for it.
This movie has a lot going for it. The performances were strong. We had a character with a difficult choice to make.
It was ruined for me early on. I'm gonna have all kinds of spoilers. Don't keep reading if you don't want the movie spoiled.
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So, the movie is centered around a murder trial. The twist is that our main character, Juror #2, realizes early on that it might not have been that the boyfriend murdered his girlfriend; but, the Juror himself might have hit the girl with his car that night, and hadn't realized it.
Juror #2 had a history of drinking and DUIs. The movie takes the side that the juror didn't drink that night, although he was tempted.
Anyway, when Juror #2 begins to think that he might have hit the girl with his car, on a dark road, in the middle of the night, in pouring rain, he asks a lawyer friend what he's looking at in regard to legal trouble.
He needs a better lawyer friend.
I get that the movie was trying to raise the stakes by telling the audience that either Juror #2 or the boyfriend was going to prison for the rest of his life. The problem is that there's no way that Juror #2 would be facing felony murder, and thirty years to life, as his lawyer friend said in the movie.
This alleged lawyer friend says that, given Juror #2's history, law enforcement wouldn't believe that he was sober. That doesn't matter. The accident was over a year ago. There's no way to prove whether or not he was intoxicated.
Even if he were drinking, that wouldn't be felony murder. Bottom line, there's no mens rea to latch onto the dude. There's no conceivable way that the state would try to claim any intent to kill.
I mean, Henry Ruggs is serving three to ten years, and we all know that he was blind drunk and driving recklessly when he plowed into another car killing a woman and her dog.
I know that the dilemma portrayed in the movie wouldn't carry the same weight if Juror #2 were told that he might be facing five years, probably out in three, when we know that the boyfriend is facing life. I know that some people in the audience would by the idea that Juror #2 would be facing life. I sure didn't.