Who We Are Now

Beth comes out after ten years in prison. While she was inside, custody of her son was given to her sister, and the boy does not even know her. Beth wants him back and starts working with the public defenders. Jess, the young idealist on the team, takes up her case whether Beth wants it or not. Meanwhile Beth grows close to Peter, who has come back from a war with what it did to him. The film promises no easy victory; it is about how hard it is, legally and emotionally, to leave a past behind. Matthew Newton directs, with Julianne Nicholson as Beth, Emma Roberts as Jess and Zachary Quinto as Peter. A hundred and one minutes. Nicholson's performance is the spine of it.