Ed's Review Dot Com

Desperate Pictures, Orange Studio, Why Not Productions,

Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Gabourey Sidibe, Thomas Jane

Kat Conner (Shailene Woodley) is a 17 year old girl, living at home with a Mom and Dad who don’t get along. Her mother, Eve (Eva Green) constantly bickers and belittles her father, Brick (Christopher Meloni) who just puts up with it. Kat’s only escape is her boyfriend Phil (Shiloh Fernandez) and her friends. Her Mother seems to be getting more and more disconnected when suddenly one day, she simply disappears. As time passes there is no trace of her and Kat is now off to college. On a break at home, Kat finds her father is moving on, finally, but she’s just not ready to let go.

This was a touching movie. The time frame is supposed to be late 80’s. Shailene sure picks some difficult projects to work on, but she’s done another great job in this performance. Her situation is really sad, with parents who have checked out, and a boyfriend who’s not really much help or support. This is a stark film. It doesn’t pull punches, and there’s a lot of realism in the storyline. Characters are well developed, and the story holds a few surprises. The story is told by Kat, who’s the narrator, and so we get the pieces from her point of view as she sees them. If another character were the focus, it could have been a wildly different story, but I think they filmmakers did an excellent job of getting the teen angst down right, and we can certainly feel for Kat and the difficulties she has to deal with on her own. This is not for the squeamish, as, like I said, it’s a stark realistic look at life, but I thought it was very well done, and I enjoyed it very much.

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Why Not Productions, Worldview Entertainment, Orange Studio,

Benicio Del Toro, Mathieu Amalric, Gina McKee, Larry Pine, Joseph Cross, Gary Farmer, Michelle Thrush, Misty Upham

Jimmy Picard is a Native American former soldier who received a severe battle injury which fractured his skull. He is now suffering from numerous problems including terrible headaches, forgetfulness and a lack of focus and concentration. The V.A. is trying to find a cause, but cannot determine any physical problem, so the only thing they can figure out is that it must be a mental problem. In an unconventional move, they pull in Dr. Georges Devereux (Mathieu Amalric) who is a psychoanalist, not a doctor nor licensed, because of his knowledge of Native American culture as a therapist for Jimmy. As time passes the bond between these two unlikely friends grows as they work through to find out Jimmy’s problem and perhaps set the groundwork for future Post Traumatic Shock cases for which a definition did not exist yet at the time.

This is an independent film, so is sometimes plodding with lots of character development, but it’s a uniquely wonderful story. Benicio Del Toro, who is Puerto Rican, is perhaps a rather strange choice to play a Blackfoot character, but he does his best. The accent is somewhat off it seems, but who am I to know. The story is really beautifully told and is really gripping. Jimmy has many dreams, most of the recurring, and this is a study of dream analysis as well. It’s based on a book by Georges, this is based on a true story. Though not the primary focus, there is look at whether Jimmy’s experiences and treatment were affected by his heritage and the general treatment of Native Americans, but it doesn’t take away from the story of Jimmy and how his experiences affect him and his entire family. A very good character study and a deeply moving story. The friendship between the two is very touching, and as strange as the situation, it proves a lot that people are basically the same no matter where they come from. I really enjoyed this film, and found it well worth watching and I recommend this one as something quite out of the mainstream. It’s definitely not ordinary in any way.

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