Charles Evered first wrote the play on which this film is based and then turned that play into a movie, directing it with all the sensitive promise of the script. It is a pleasure to experience this little low budget Indie and be swept up in the honest manner in which it invites us to look at our lives from a different perspective.
It is Fleet Week in New York, a time when sailors about to be shipped out to duty are given an evening of freedom with the option of accepting the invitation of families to invite them into their homes as a farewell. A young HM3 (navy corpsman) from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas played with poetic sensitivity by Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck) is serendipitously 'adopted' by a dysfunctional New York couple - Patricia (Bebe Neuwirth) runs a gallery and husband Richard (Peter Coyote) makes films. As Patricia responds to the sailor's wonder, 'Movies are what people what to go see, films are what you try to convince people to see' - evidence that Patricia has been supporting the marriage so that Richard doesn't have to work except to make unwanted films: the couple is nearing dissolution. Through one evening of conversation Patricia and Richard voice their failing love, the sailor maintains an innocence about life in the big city and in doing so shares some of his own small town fears and frustrations about becoming an adult- and the three people find a new look on their lives as a result. The film is at once hilarious, verbally brutal, revealing, and genuinely tender as these three people's lives intersect to find new and healthy direction.
Ethan Peck is absolutely extraordinary in maintaining his innocent near-angel role, never becoming mawkish or a parody of 'Southern uneducated kids'. He is a joy throughout the film and demonstrates that he is an actor of great promise. Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote are both solid and polished actors and make us examine their decadent marriage without allowing the viewer to take sides but instead to ache for both of them. The film is a jewel and speaks especially loudly about the young lads who are being sent off to war. Charles Evered is a major talent to watch. Highly Recommended.
Grady Harp
It is Fleet Week in New York, a time when sailors about to be shipped out to duty are given an evening of freedom with the option of accepting the invitation of families to invite them into their homes as a farewell. A young HM3 (navy corpsman) from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas played with poetic sensitivity by Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck) is serendipitously 'adopted' by a dysfunctional New York couple - Patricia (Bebe Neuwirth) runs a gallery and husband Richard (Peter Coyote) makes films. As Patricia responds to the sailor's wonder, 'Movies are what people what to go see, films are what you try to convince people to see' - evidence that Patricia has been supporting the marriage so that Richard doesn't have to work except to make unwanted films: the couple is nearing dissolution. Through one evening of conversation Patricia and Richard voice their failing love, the sailor maintains an innocence about life in the big city and in doing so shares some of his own small town fears and frustrations about becoming an adult- and the three people find a new look on their lives as a result. The film is at once hilarious, verbally brutal, revealing, and genuinely tender as these three people's lives intersect to find new and healthy direction.
Ethan Peck is absolutely extraordinary in maintaining his innocent near-angel role, never becoming mawkish or a parody of 'Southern uneducated kids'. He is a joy throughout the film and demonstrates that he is an actor of great promise. Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote are both solid and polished actors and make us examine their decadent marriage without allowing the viewer to take sides but instead to ache for both of them. The film is a jewel and speaks especially loudly about the young lads who are being sent off to war. Charles Evered is a major talent to watch. Highly Recommended.
Grady Harp