Mark Boone Jr. looks off into a confusing future.
(2012) Drama (Contraction Entertainment) Mark Boone Jr., Melora Walters, Alana Jordan, Taylor Engel, Daniel Hassel, Victoria Mullen, Joyce Liles, Hannah Hughes, Jocelyn Druyan, Jackson Pyle, Jeremy Windham, Emana Rachelle, Carlissa Arrow. Directed by Kenton Bartlett
Love is not the easiest thing in the world to understand or come to grips with. We just know when we’re in it and we don’t always know when we’re out of it. Sometimes, it ends sooner for one participant than the other; sometimes we have to go to extraordinary lengths to figure out why.
David Lindale (Boone) is not your ordinary average guy. He’s a big hulking dude who looks like he might rip your head off of your neck but a look at his eyes shows that he’s really just a big teddy bear who has a few light bulbs short of a chandelier. It’s not his fault – an accident left him a bit fragile from a mental standpoint – but if David seems a little slow on the uptake he still follows his own path of logic that is at least a different way of thinking.
Delia (Walters) is his girlfriend and she’s had enough. David has been getting worse in his confusion and his well-intentioned but ultimately inappropriate actions, and she wants to call it quits. David tries everything he can to get her to stay but she is adamant; it’s time for the both of them to move on. David is nowhere near ready to and that leads him to an act that may on the surface seem very crazy and spontaneous but in truth took a good deal of planning; he kidnaps two young people – Maggie (Engel) and Daylen (Hassel) – and puts them in a situation where they must learn to rely on each other. What will become of what David considers to be a social experiment?
This movie, first and foremost, is a labor of love. Bartlett only picked up a video camera for the first time a mere three years from the time he finished this movie, and clearly this project means the world to him. He got a number of friends and professionals to lend their talents gratis for the movie and you get a sense that the cast and crew had complete buy-in regarding the project.
Bartlett did quite a few things right here. For one thing, he cast the main roles to near-perfection. Boone, who has had minor roles in Batman Begins and Memento (both Christopher Nolan films) makes a terrific David. He has a mournful pair of eyes that sits in the body of a man who you wouldn’t necessarily see as sensitive at first glance. Boone does a lot of acting with those eyes and gets across his frustration in failing to understand what is happening and why. He’s not stupid – he’s just confused. The difference is huge and important here.
Walters, Engel and Hassel all do bang-up jobs in roles that could have easily been clichés (and would have been in a studio film) but bring some humanity and personality to their parts. That makes for a compelling character study and to my mind, that’s essentially what this film is.
Now to the bad news. This is told in a non-linear fashion (as was Memento) and while that’s an ambitious, ballsy move, it is also incredibly difficult to pull off and Bartlett doesn’t quite do it – the beginning of the movie is confusing at times. It is worth hanging in there for however.
Again, this is clearly a labor of love. The intent of the moviemakers was not to get headlines in Ain’t It Cool News or to be on everybody’s lips at Sundance, but to make a quality movie and get people to see it. They have an uphill climb ahead of them and I do wish them well. However, they managed to get some theater space in Birmingham in September and played a night in Los Angeles; I’m sure they will be making the festival rounds next year.
They were kind enough to provide a review copy for me and while I can’t laud them as the best thing since sliced bread, I can say that if you take a chance on this movie and give it a viewing (and if you hurry, they’re available on prescreening.com (link below) until mid-November 2011) you may well be pleasantly surprised. This movie got made for all the right reasons and there is enough here to make it worth your while. If you love movies, this is a film after your own heart.
REASONS TO GO: Well-acted with a story that is unique and compelling.
REASONS TO STAY: The narrative is told in a non-linear fashion and the beginning of the movie is often hard to follow.
FAMILY VALUES: There are some adult situations and language.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie had 588 people volunteer their time at no charge for various duties on the production.
HOME OR THEATER: This will be awfully hard to find in a theater; it should be much easier to find either on Netflix (eventually) or on prescreen.com.
FINAL RATING: 6.5/10
TOMORROW: Chasing Amy
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