Juror #2 – Thursday 12th June 2025

Any film about a member of a jury is going to be compared to the best in the genre; ‘12 Angry Men’.
This film doesn’t compare to that masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean it’s not without merit.

The central dilemma is definitely worthy of discussion; it’s difficult to mention it without spoiling the film.
Where this film falls short, however, is in how ‘obvious’ the mystery becomes. Also, in how invested the justice system is in uncovering the truth.

Having dealt with lawyers, and been a member of a jury myself, I can assure you that their main concern is not whether justice is served, but in getting through the work day as quickly, and as unproblematically as possible.

The whole suspension of disbelief falls apart because of the way the characters are written; too earnest and too preoccupied with getting to the truth. ‘If only’ the real world was like that.

Unfortunately, the reality is, the justice system is only concerned with the statistics relating to conviction rates, and not whether people are guilty or deserving of prosecution. You could be a saint, but if they believe they can convict you, and push up their conviction rate, they’ll throw you behind bars and not even think once about it, let alone twice. Similarly, you could be guilty of the most heinous acts, but if they don’t think they can get a conviction, they won’t even bother trying.

That aside, it’s a decent film with some good performances.