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Stephen (William McNamara) has had it with this world, so he decides to
end it all, and with a noose already dangling from the ceiling of his
living room, he gives the outside world one more spin to take care of his
affairs, after a fixed schedule - when he stumbles over Maria (Kaylynn
Kubeldis), a blind girl on a school trip who has lost her class and almost
got involved in a car accident. Stephen tries to place her in a police car
to do the right thing and get rid of the responsibility, but it seems all
cops in town have better things to do. He also tries to call Maria's mum,
but nobody answers, and she doesn't know who else to call. So begrudgingly
at first, he decides to take her with him at his tour through town - sure,
he finds the girl a tad irritating, but then again he can't leave a young
blind girl to her own devices. So he takes her with him on his trip, along
which he tries to spread his (rather considerable) wealth to those in need
(with mixed results), do a few things he wants to do one last time (like
going to see a silent movie or sing karaoke) - and see (at least from a
distance) his divorced wife one last time. And during all of this, little
Maria really grows on him, and she proves an asset more than once when he
gets into situations he shouldn't have. And slowly, the motives for
Stephen wanting to end it all become clear - but can the blind girl change
his perception of reality? You better get a box of tissues
ready, as this movie's a bit of a tearjerker - but it achieves that not by
kitsch overload but by carefully building up its story and conflicts,
revealing things only by the by and painting a full picture only in the
final act. Also Kaylynn Kubeldis' Maria is not your run-of-the-mill cute
and helpless girl, neither in looks nor attitude, but quite a character of
her own, while William McNamara's Stephen isn't just the cold guy whose
heart needs melting but actually tries to do good from the moment he
leaves his house - and both of them give rather wonderful performances,
also helped by a direction that keeps things moving at a steady pace and
adds action and mystery to the basic plot, to make this one nice (if
ultimately tearjerking) piece of entertainment.
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