Rating- * * * * * (5/5)
This is an example of a movie that is only enjoyable to someone who is a heavyweight film lover. The story is very slow moving and there is nothing very outstanding about the film visually. This is a movie about characters and it gives us performances so deep and so moving that we really begin to feel as if we know the characters by the end of the film. Perhaps it because we know people like them in real life, or perhaps it is because the performances are just so believable that we are pulled right into their reality. The movie opens with a happy, love-struck couple (Marisa Tomei and Nick Stahl) enjoying the freedom of youth. The boy is home from college and staying in his home town with his parents for a while. His mother (Sissy Spacek) is a very intelligent, educated woman who teaches at a local school and his father (Tom Wilkinson) is the local doctor for his small town, well respected by the entire community. The boy is frustrated because he really has no ambitions beyond working as a lobster fisherman but his parents, particularly his father, think he should fulfill his potential and go into medical school. In the meantime, the girlfriend’s old husband is back in town to see his son and has less than friendly feelings towards Stahl. What I’m about to tell you is not a big shock for the movie, but if you are one of those who doesn’t want to hear anything about the plot, you should probably skip to the bottom of this review. One fateful day, the boyfriend shows up drunk and armed, finds Stahl in the girlfriend’s house and in probably one of the most startling murder scenes in any movie I’ve seen, spontaneously kills Stahl. The shriek from Marisa Tomei as she discovers what has happened is one of the most horrifying sounds I have ever heard and her reaction is as real as anyone’s actual reaction to finding a loved one murdered. The truly heartbreaking scenes come when the parents react to their son’s death. I saw this with my mother, believe it or not, and as we sat there we both cried as I, and I’m sure she as well, imagined ourselves or each other in the same situation and watched as the actors did far more than act out these scenes, they made them real. The parents don’t seek solace in each other as most movies would have them do; they isolate themselves and eventually begin to blame one another for their son’s death. As amazing as it sounds, this is more often than not what happens to couples that lose a child. As they fight, we hear only biased opinions, then denials of each parent’s behavior. We have seen examples of what they are talking about, but we have not really seen enough of these characters’ lives to determine if there is any truth in the accusations. We do see, however, that one of the characters has a clearly dominant personality and what that other character is forced to do because of this is an action so starling yet somehow feasible. This movie is not about the story but about the people in the story; and it’s not about entertainment, but about reality. This is a movie that faces issues of the real world by showing the real world, and all the acting is of the highest caliber of film acting. Although none of the actors won their respective categories at the Oscars (Spacek for Actress, Wilkinson for Actor, and Tomei for Supporting Actress) this is not a reflection of the acting quality so much as it is Hollywood politics. Years from now, these performances will no doubt be regarded as some of the finest in the history of film and I predict that the director, Todd Field (this was his first film!) has a long, successful career ahead of him. For those who consider film to be an art form and can appreciate a film that may not be entertaining but is certainly moving and thought-provoking, this film cannot be missed.