Surprisingly Engaging

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2019)

As my review title suggests, this film was surprisingly engaging. Knowing the premise going in, I expected to get bored fairly early on, but boy was I wrong. The movie had my attention from start to finish, even when the characters were going around doing seemingly inconsequential things.
Speaking of which, I really enjoyed how these small inconsequential things really helped develop the characters. There's only so much you can do in terms of solid character development when you have such a limited setting both physically and time-wise, but because of all the little things the characters were portrayed doing from the get-go, I felt like I could get a genuine feel for each of the jurors, which helped justify their major actions throughout the film.
On the topic of detail, I'm sure this isn't very important but for some reason I absolutely loved how the men got progressively sweatier and sweatier as the film progressed. And no, I don't have a sweat fetish. I just enjoyed how the sweat was used to build the atmosphere of the film. I mean sure, you can have the characters go on and on about the weather, but a detail like the amount of the sweat on their faces really helps solidify that atmosphere. I could feel the men's frustration at their situation better by seeing the sweat dripping down their faces and from the stains on their shirt. I don't know, maybe I'm overanalyzing the situation, but that's something I quite enjoyed.
I also feel the need to mention how much I appreciated Jurors 4 and 11. Juror 4 gave the "negative side" a logical argument, which, to me, really strengthened the film. Too often the "negative side" in films like this are completely irrational and awful. Juror 4 helped keep the arguments in the film from going completely off the rails. Juror 11 was such a burst of sunshine. Dang, I loved him. He was hilarious and provided a nice sense of humor to the film when it started to get too tense for too long. Sometimes the message the filmmakers were trying to send through Juror 11 about immigrants felt a little heavyhanded, but overall, I loved that character.
Although I mentioned how that message felt a little heavyhanded at times, it was very pleasant to see the film give a message about the risks of racism and racial profiling.
The flow of the script was remarkable. It managed to go from plot point to plot point while maintaining a realistic semblance of what such a group of men would be like in real life. I especially enjoyed it when certain jurors were baited into saying completely contradictory things in a completely natural flow of dialogue.
I really didn't think that I'd be saying this, but after watching the film, I've come to appreciate the premise of the film as a whole. It was definitely experimental, definitely novel, but that experimentalness definitely paid off. I mean seriously, who would think to make a movie with the setting of a single room in which a jury decides, after being presented the case off screen, whether the accused is guilty or not? And seriously, to be able to pull that off without the film getting stuffy at times and feeling claustrophobic? That's some insane stuff right there.
But, as you can see, this film did not receive 10 stars; it wasn't perfect. First of all, despite what I just said about liking the novelty of the premise, it just felt a little too stretched at times. Am I supposed to believe that the lawyer, however unmotivated, missed all that contradictory information and problematic evidence in court? If that were to actually happen, it would be very, very concerning. Also I couldn't tell if and if, then what, message the movie was trying to send about the state of the American judicial system. I feel like it was, but it was just presented as a half-baked idea.
Also the whole gig with Juror 3. I understand that his stance during the entire movie was due to his complicated relationship with his own son, and I think that's a very interesting motivation for his actions. But I just felt like the resolution of his opposition at the very end of the movie was a little too hasty.
And that's about it. Would definitely recommend this movie.