A substandard house with an attached camping trailer, the middle of
nowhere, USA: Mom is gone unannounced yet again, leaving her two sons,
Alec (Jaybizzle) and Adam (Douglas Reese), two guys in their late
teens/early 20's with no real goals in their life, to fend for themselves.
Now Alec is just your typical slob whose whole life is taking place
between internet porn, his Nintendo, and practicing at the pool table in
the garage without ever getting better. But if you can see past his
laziness and lack of motivation, he's a likeable guy and fun to be around.
Adam is a serious matter altogether: He's unstable, sleeps with a knife
under his mattress, lets of steam by mutilating tree stumps, and suffers
from serious social deficiencies - hence he hasn't been to town for 1 1/2
years. Then a girl shows up, Amber (Dylani Mathis), who wants to talk to
mom, but wouldn't say why upon learning she's not in. Adam gets all
nervous about her presence alone, but Alec is able to get the reason for
her being here out of Amber: She's actually mom's daughter whom mom has
given up for adoption, in other words Adam and Alec's sister they never
knew existed. This totally confuses Adam, and his confusion is expressed
in a mixture of rudeness, klutziness and refusal to accept the truth. Alec
on the other hand soon takes a liking to the girl who's so unlike himself
and his brother, though he at first tries to mask it with an extra cool
attitude - which doesn't convince her for one minute even. Later, when
Alex phones mom, it becomes apparent how disappointed he is about learning
about his sister only now ... It seems that only thanks to Amber to Alec
and Adam finally have a serious conversation about their dead end lives,
their future, their goals, their aspirations and whatnot. This night,
even though Adam has gone to quite some troubles to fix Amber up with a
bed of her own, the three siblings all sleep in Adam's bed - and Adam
smiles, the first time in a very long time probably ... The film ends
with mom returning, who knows what will happen from here on ... What
a nice movie! There doesn't seem to be a whole lot happening, and the film
takes a long time showing that, and the dramatic situations of the story
are intentionally understated, the drama at hand is presented in the most
unspectacular manner - and yet the whole thing works beautifully, with the
unhurried way of storytelling only heightening the film's emotional
effect, without ever falling prey to the many clichées a story of this
ilk might suggest almost by definition. Recommended, actually. Oh,
and if you want to see the feature right now, and free of charge, you can
do so right here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFC86A493CF98402A&feature=viewall.
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