Unified Pictures, Tee Rob Pictures, Amberdale Productions,
Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Huffman, Selena Gomez, Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy
Sam (Billy Crudup) is a single Dad whose life spirals out of control when his college age son is recently deceased. He’s a power ad executive, but just can’t deal with the pain. After he loses his job, he takes a spin at house painting and lives on a boat and heads deeper and deeper into despair. When his ex-wife drops off their son’s demo tapes for songs that he wrote, Sam starts singing them at a local bar, but as the music becomes quite popular, he is faced with the fact that he has stolen his son’s music and must face the consequences.
This is a very dark indie film, that tells a great story. William H. Macy has a rather small part, but he is the director and he is so talented. He really brought this film to the screen in a very touching manner, and it really affects you in the way the story unfolds. He does an excellent job here. Anton Yelchin, who recently passed away in a tragic accident is very memorable here. His role in pivotal in the epiphany that Sam has to come to and does a very good job as well. You’ll see that Selena Gomez is listed, and her role is rather small. Since her boyfriend (Sam’s son) dies in the first few minutes, and since she is boy’s girlfriend, I can only assume that she is here for her star power. It’s a small role, but completely dramatic, and she handles it well. The story is somewhat shocking, and you have to come to feel sorry for Sam, though you’d like to smack him at the same time, and there are several other actors who turn in excellent performances. The star power here is fierce and the story, though dark, is quite touching. I have often wondered of how people deal with issues like this, and this film seems, (to me at least) to portray it in a very stark, realistic manner. This is rated R because of the intensity of the subject matter, and though the usual stuff that earns an R rating is not present here, it’s still likely to be disturbing for younger teens, so I would stick with the R rating. For those who are older though, I think this is a good example of an excellent independent film, and I can imagine it was popular in the film festival circuit. Give it a shot, it’s a worthwhile tale.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
