Reviewed by George Schmidt
A 21st Century "Coming Home"; One of the Best Post 9/11 Films to Date
The war drama has been around as long as man has been fighting man – or so it seems at least on the silver screen. Each war has its definitive cinematic portrayal about the aftermath and homecoming of its combatants, forever changed by his or her experiences on the battlefield and the constant tug of consciousness of accepting the term of hero or patriot; or not.
The latest endeavor by newcomer filmmaker Patrick J. Donnelly, “ DIVERGENCE”, combines many of the elements of its subgenre – the wounded vet retuning to his hometown much for the worse trying to fit back into the groove of society while attempting to process the aftershocks of his experience while trying to find a reason for it all – in this Iraq War drama about Tim Lawson (Jakob Hawkins), a chopper pilot who has sustained a leg injury causing him to return stateside to heal until his preliminary check-up to ascertain if he is suitable to return to the warfront. Tim is a mild-mannered, quiet and deeply in pain young man whose return to his NJ Shore hamlet finds himself reunited with his best friend Dave (Ben Hindell), a self-employed contractor and his attorney girlfriend Jill (Jeannine Kaspar), who help him find a realtor to rent a bungalow until his scheduled physical.
Heidi (Marci Adilman), the realtor finds Tim an affordable temporary home and recognizes him immediately as former high school alum she secretly was in love with. Heidi’s somewhat aggressive yet well-meaning free spirit is a bit of a comfort to the wary Tim and they have a half-hearted fling.
Tim’s next-door neighbor, Clare O’Neil (the ethereal Traci Ann Wolfe), meanwhile, is holed up in her seaside cottage for nearly a year after the traumatic tragedy of a lethal car crash that claimed her loving husband and their four-year old daughter. Clare is inconsolable in spite of the prodding of her mother Constance (Mary Looram) and her brother Chris (Daniel Harnett) to move on and at the very least entertain the thought of a memorial service. Clare is damaged goods who is in a consistent depressive state fueled by prescription pills and vodka to the point of a near nervous breakdown.
One night Clare’s grief has hit its limit to the degree of her stupored state involving a loud primal scream awakening Tim to investigate in time to see his mysterious neighbor walking directly into the pounding surf. Quickly racing to her in time, Tim saves her life and returns her to her house where she is immediately embarrassed and after a hasty goodnight Tim promises to return the next day to check up on her.
Clare eventually realizes she has made a horrific mistake and apologizes to Tim when he pays his second visit, offering to fix her broken front door lock and gradually the two injured, lost souls seek solace in one another. Tim begins to let his guard down by actually feeling something in a long time: love. Clare thaws from her frozen inertia to welcome Tim as a lover and eventually a soul mate. But Tim’s forthcoming physical looms in the distance causing the couple to make a decision: leave the country to avoid Tim facing another tour of duty or for Tim to fulfill his obligation to the military.
Donnelly, a veteran key grip and director of photography, makes a remarkable filmmaking debut in this low-budget indie as a labor of love (his wife Meg Sudik is the film’s executive producer) and wisely eschews the politics of the current state of war in the world but instead focuses on how two disparate yet equal people have found each other in a world gone mad. His cinematography is clear-eyed with the smart choice of using the barren yet beautiful shoreline act as a character as well – it eerily looks like the moon at night and serves as a metaphor for almost being a way-station (particularly in the sequence when the two tremulous new friends find themselves at night on a deserted beach bench sharing their life stories together).
Donnelly’s editing with Robert Mead is economical yet clever with his fades to quick black and some sequences ending abruptly as the next begins but not in a hurried way at all. The dirge-like melancholic score by Ronen Landa suggests a mournful chamber music piece that underscores the protagonists’ situation beautifully.
But the sublime acting by Hawkins (who resembles Peter Krause) – his haunted eyes speak volumes for the words he can barely articulate except the excruciating moment of re-uniting with his Alzheimer’s afflicted father in a nursing home of: “I just don’t want to do this anymore” in reference of returning to the war – and the beautiful Wolfe, who resembles Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron, whose quiet demeanor only belies the terror under the surface of tying to start a new, fulfilling life again.
The film as a whole works as a character study and has the feel of a novella come to life but it is perhaps the best post 9/11 film I’ve seen – including “UNITED 93” and “WORLD TRADE CENTER” – because it focuses on a real human element: the promise of love amidst immense tragedy. This may very well be the “COMING HOME” of its generation.
Film Rating: 4 stars (out of 4)
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Just Like The Son - Movie Review
Reviewed by George Schmidt
Daniel Carter (Mark Webber) is a young man on a path to nowhere fast who is trying the patience of the judicial system for his continuous streak of misdemeanors landing him thisclose to a for-real prison sentence and his father Bill (Bruce MacVittie) has lost his patience to the point that Daniel realizes he must move out and fulfill his 240 hours of assigned community service.
In the interim he stays with his best friend, Grant Bills (Brendan Sexton III) in his small apartment in Greenwich Village, where he can crash as he preps himself to face being a janitor in a public school where he is under the supervision of the principal, Mrs. Ponders (Rosie Perez), who is a no-nonsense type who sets the tone that if he doesn’t do as he’s supposed to there will be trouble.
One day she asks Daniel to watch over a class of young children as she awaits a substitute teacher to arrive. Daniel at first is supposed to simply stand guard outside the classroom but when he sees a small boy, who he met previously in the bathroom, being harassed, Daniel doesn’t think or hesitate and enters the room, telling the kids to settle down and behave themselves. Momentarily Mrs. Ponders returns and at first admonishes Daniel for taking a large leap at responsibility, but then sees how he managed to put the class in order acquiesces by allowing him to read a book aloud to the children. Daniel seems to have found a new home and surprisingly enjoying the moment to the point that the sub even says he’s welcome anytime to pop in and read to the kids.
Daniel begins to befriend the little boy, Boone (Antonio Ortiz), a seemingly happy, mulatto with a huge ‘fro and a smile to with it. The two bond quickly even to the point of Boone informing Daniel that his mother is sick and he may have to return to foster care.
When Daniel discovers it the next day that Boone is not in school and Mrs. Ponders will not share the reasons why, he puts two and two together and decides to find the boy for himself.
What follows is a funny, heartfelt and joyful ‘kidnapping’ by Daniel – after Grant obliges to drive him upstate to locate Boone first – and the purpose he assumes to have in his lackadaisical life is in keeping the child for himself. The two forge a tight, loving relationship as they drive cross-country to find Boone’s estranged older sister.
Filmmaker Morgan J. Freeman offers a throwback in a way to ‘70s era road trips and dysfunctional family films echoing Cassavettes, Bogdonavich and Spielberg but sure-handedly making the film his own with a breezy, carefree tone throughout with just the right amount of tension on the edges as one feels the dread of Daniel & Boone’s odyssey of self-discovery to be yanked out from their footing. In the meantime it is a fun, endearingly lovely and at times poignant character study in depicting a young man who may never had the love he so desperately wants to give to another human being, someone who is not even his blood, to show how meaningful life can be, even when he has nothing to show for it.
Webber, an amiable sort perhaps best known as the ‘is he or isn’t he’ long-lost son of Bill Murray in “Broken Flowers”, proves to be a decent actor recalling traces of the aforementioned golden age’s Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman and Richard Dreyfuss – anti-heroic heroes; men who don’t want to follow but to lead but just don’t know how to do it properly. His Daniel may be impulsive but he is not stupid; he knows ultimately the price to pay in the long run which makes the trip all too bittersweet.
Newcomer Ortiz is a treasure; a real natural with no trace of precocity which is in itself a sigh of relief. He counterbalances his scenes with Webber nicely and more importantly, believably. An organic relationship at is basic core: unrequited love.
The clear-eyed cinematography by Yaron Orbach, rustic peaceful music by Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham and yeoman like editing by Sloane Klevin compliment the actors and director’s vision. My only gripe is it goes too fast – there could’ve been more character development (i.e. mostly in the fine assembled ensemble particularly Perez who is at best a glorified cameo). The film as a whole is a small gem that seems a fitting valentine to ‘70s films and as itself a unique look at what it means to be someone who tries to do the right thing when the reality is he already has.
Film Rating: 3 stars (out of 4)
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Daniel Carter (Mark Webber) is a young man on a path to nowhere fast who is trying the patience of the judicial system for his continuous streak of misdemeanors landing him thisclose to a for-real prison sentence and his father Bill (Bruce MacVittie) has lost his patience to the point that Daniel realizes he must move out and fulfill his 240 hours of assigned community service.
In the interim he stays with his best friend, Grant Bills (Brendan Sexton III) in his small apartment in Greenwich Village, where he can crash as he preps himself to face being a janitor in a public school where he is under the supervision of the principal, Mrs. Ponders (Rosie Perez), who is a no-nonsense type who sets the tone that if he doesn’t do as he’s supposed to there will be trouble.
One day she asks Daniel to watch over a class of young children as she awaits a substitute teacher to arrive. Daniel at first is supposed to simply stand guard outside the classroom but when he sees a small boy, who he met previously in the bathroom, being harassed, Daniel doesn’t think or hesitate and enters the room, telling the kids to settle down and behave themselves. Momentarily Mrs. Ponders returns and at first admonishes Daniel for taking a large leap at responsibility, but then sees how he managed to put the class in order acquiesces by allowing him to read a book aloud to the children. Daniel seems to have found a new home and surprisingly enjoying the moment to the point that the sub even says he’s welcome anytime to pop in and read to the kids.
Daniel begins to befriend the little boy, Boone (Antonio Ortiz), a seemingly happy, mulatto with a huge ‘fro and a smile to with it. The two bond quickly even to the point of Boone informing Daniel that his mother is sick and he may have to return to foster care.
When Daniel discovers it the next day that Boone is not in school and Mrs. Ponders will not share the reasons why, he puts two and two together and decides to find the boy for himself.
What follows is a funny, heartfelt and joyful ‘kidnapping’ by Daniel – after Grant obliges to drive him upstate to locate Boone first – and the purpose he assumes to have in his lackadaisical life is in keeping the child for himself. The two forge a tight, loving relationship as they drive cross-country to find Boone’s estranged older sister.
Filmmaker Morgan J. Freeman offers a throwback in a way to ‘70s era road trips and dysfunctional family films echoing Cassavettes, Bogdonavich and Spielberg but sure-handedly making the film his own with a breezy, carefree tone throughout with just the right amount of tension on the edges as one feels the dread of Daniel & Boone’s odyssey of self-discovery to be yanked out from their footing. In the meantime it is a fun, endearingly lovely and at times poignant character study in depicting a young man who may never had the love he so desperately wants to give to another human being, someone who is not even his blood, to show how meaningful life can be, even when he has nothing to show for it.
Webber, an amiable sort perhaps best known as the ‘is he or isn’t he’ long-lost son of Bill Murray in “Broken Flowers”, proves to be a decent actor recalling traces of the aforementioned golden age’s Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman and Richard Dreyfuss – anti-heroic heroes; men who don’t want to follow but to lead but just don’t know how to do it properly. His Daniel may be impulsive but he is not stupid; he knows ultimately the price to pay in the long run which makes the trip all too bittersweet.
Newcomer Ortiz is a treasure; a real natural with no trace of precocity which is in itself a sigh of relief. He counterbalances his scenes with Webber nicely and more importantly, believably. An organic relationship at is basic core: unrequited love.
The clear-eyed cinematography by Yaron Orbach, rustic peaceful music by Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham and yeoman like editing by Sloane Klevin compliment the actors and director’s vision. My only gripe is it goes too fast – there could’ve been more character development (i.e. mostly in the fine assembled ensemble particularly Perez who is at best a glorified cameo). The film as a whole is a small gem that seems a fitting valentine to ‘70s films and as itself a unique look at what it means to be someone who tries to do the right thing when the reality is he already has.
Film Rating: 3 stars (out of 4)
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