Juror #2

My nephew and I went to a double feature last night and we started with Juror #2 at one of only 50 theaters showing it in the U.S.  I'm not sure why it is getting such a limited release because our screening was packed and there were a lot of positive comments from people after it was over.  My nephew and I really enjoyed it.  Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a recovering alcoholic expecting his first child with his wife Allison Crewson (Zoey Deutch) when he is selected for jury duty in a high profile murder trial.  The prosecutor, Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette), thinks it is an open and shut case and is eager for a win to bolster her campaign to become district attorney.  James Sythe (Gabriel Basso) is accused of beating his girlfriend Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood) to death and leaving her body in a ravine after a fight in a local bar but he and his lawyer Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) staunchly maintain his innocence.  As Kemp listens to the testimony, he is horrified to realize that he was at the same bar on the night of the murder and that his car accident, which he believed to be a collision with a deer, may have killed the victim.  He is tormented by guilt when the jury begins their deliberations but he is also disconcerted when another juror (J.K. Simmons) starts asking questions about Sythe's guilt.  This is a slow burn in which the crime is shown from several different perspectives and I liked the fact that there was always some doubt about what actually happened.  I also enjoyed the discussion about culpability as Kemp tries to rationalize the fact that Sythe is a dangerous man who deserves to be punished even though he may not be guilty of the specific crime he is charged with as well as the criticism of a judicial system in which expediency is favored over the actual truth.  Hoult gives an incredibly powerful performance as a man desperate to believe that he is a good man and so does Collette because her character has a similar, though more understated, arc.  I found this to be very thought-provoking and I think it is a shame that most people won't have a chance to see it in a theater.