An evening at the indie theater can be an evening well spent. It takes me an hour to get there, so when possible I like to make every visit count. This particular evening they were screening a pair of films that I was interested in seeing, and fortunately the timing fell into place that I would be able to take both of them in without an exorbitant wait, or coming back another day. I walked into the small room that passes for a lobby, purchased tickets to both films for the appropriate times, took a small step to my left and purchased a medium popcorn and a bottle of water. I entered the theater and settled down for the first film.
The screen came up and a trailer for the film Millions played and then the main feature started. I started the evening off with Off the Map, a decent little film starring Joan Allen and Sam Elliot. I had first seen this reviewed on Ebert & Roeper a month or so ago where they split, with Ebert liking it. I left it with mixed feelings. I thought it was an intriguing film with interesting characters, but it meanders a bit and the setup seems to be a bit contrived. It almost seemed that they thought the audience needed someone else to identify with rather than relying on the writing and existing characters to get them over with the audience. At the same time there is the problem of needing something from the outside to get the story started, as there is much less of a conflict or need to move forward without it.
I guess I should give you the overview of the film. Well, it is about a family that is literally "living off the map." They live in a home with no power, no phone, no television, with no road even, it is literally off in the deserts of New Mexico. Charley, Sam Elliot, gets a veteran's pension, and they sell flowers and such for extra money. Outside of that, they grow, hunt, make, dig up at the dump whatever they need. Their are a few stories running concurrently here. The first is about Charley's depression, he is severely depressed with no real reason given, he just is, and they struggle to get him help, they being Arlene(Joan Allen) and his best friend, George (JK Simmins, who is J Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films). There is their daughter Bo, who longs to leave the desert and live a normal life, and is also the narrator of the film, told in flashback. Finally, there is the arrival of William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), an IRS agent sent there to audit the family as they have not filed for many years.
What the film succeeds at is putting these relationships on display and how they grow and how they have adapted to this way of life. Feeding off of the arrival of Gibbs, they adapt to the new arrival and how deeply they affect him. While contrived, it still has a natural feel to it. Joan Allen in particular shines, bringing a surprising depth to her role as matriarch.
As a character study this is an interesting work, but I felt there could have been more. Impressive for first time solo director, Campbell Scott.
Mildly Recommended.
I returned to the lobby, gave them my ticket for the next show and repeated my step to the left to get some more popcorn and water. I then entered the second theater and waited for the show to begin.
That familiar dimming of the lights took me, once again, into the world of the projected image. We start with a trailer for Off the Map, then the feature begins. The film is Millions, the latest from director Danny Boyle. It is also a bit of a different arena for him, previously conquering the bizarre with Trainspotting, and reinvigorating the zombie film with the revisionist 28 Days Later, this time he targets a more family friendly film topic.
This film was fascinating. It tells the story of a widower who is moving to a new home with his two sons. While playing in his box fort he built near the railroad tracks, discovers a large bag of money, and wondering what to do with it, shows it to his older brother. Each of them start forming ideas of what to do with it, but before long the man who lost the money comes looking for it. Sounds a bit on the generic side, doesn't it? It does, but there is more to it than that.
The real star is the younger son, Damian, played by Alexander Nathan Etel. He just breathes life into his role, giving it a sweet innocence that is captivating on the screen. You know, excellent performances from children are always magic on the screen, and this is just the latest to grace that screen. His character is a good kid, always wishing the best for his late mother and knowledgeable about saints. Where some kids know baseball stats, he knows saints, knowing their miracles, the years of birth and death. You see, he has visions of these saints and he has conversations about what to do with the money, always being sure to ask about his mother.
There are a lot of cliche's at work throughout the film. Things like a woman who may be trying to replace their mother and the school play performance. Despite all of this it, it still comes together very well. Danny Boyle does a wonderful job and eliciting these performances and keeping everything on track, knowing when to tug at the heart and when to ratchet up the tension. This is one of the best films to come out this year.
Highly Recommended.
In closing, I want to say, anyone who has one of these small independent theaters near them but don't know about the films, go check them out. You will discover a lot of great films there that fly under the radar.
Also on Blogcritics.org.
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