The untimely death of a twelve year old is always going to have a significant impact on the surrounding community. This movie explores the impact as the ripples move outward, and the three friends of the deceased move upward into early adolescence. It's a hellish time of life, when childhood certainties fall away, and individuals make their first moves towards establishing an adult identity. The script manages to capture that pain, and the clumsiness of those first steps which often arise from negative impulses: Leonard doesn't want to be fat, Malee doesn't want to be ignored, and Jacob doesn't want to be the surviving twin.
As the children struggle to come to terms with their changing status, the adults around them offer little in the way of guidance or role modelling. The grieving mother (Jayne Atkinson) clings to a Biblical sense of revenge, while her husband (Linus Roache) dons marigolds and tries to clean his son's memory out of the house. Traumatized ex-fireman Gus (Jeremy Renner) encourages Malee's inappropriate behaviour as a sap to his loneliness. Leonard's mother (Marcia DeBonis) is in denial about her eating habits and rages against her son's attempt to change his. Conflict swirls everywhere, and, while this makes for some dramatic and powerful moments (the confrontations between Malee/Gus and Jacob and his brother's killer), means that the story is ultimately rather fragmented, a series of linked vignettes rather than a satisfying whole.
The performances across the board are excellent, however. The juvenile cast are ably supported by some of indie film's best players (Renner, Roache, Sciorra), and this is a poignant if bloody valentine to the transition from childhood to adolescence.
As the children struggle to come to terms with their changing status, the adults around them offer little in the way of guidance or role modelling. The grieving mother (Jayne Atkinson) clings to a Biblical sense of revenge, while her husband (Linus Roache) dons marigolds and tries to clean his son's memory out of the house. Traumatized ex-fireman Gus (Jeremy Renner) encourages Malee's inappropriate behaviour as a sap to his loneliness. Leonard's mother (Marcia DeBonis) is in denial about her eating habits and rages against her son's attempt to change his. Conflict swirls everywhere, and, while this makes for some dramatic and powerful moments (the confrontations between Malee/Gus and Jacob and his brother's killer), means that the story is ultimately rather fragmented, a series of linked vignettes rather than a satisfying whole.
The performances across the board are excellent, however. The juvenile cast are ably supported by some of indie film's best players (Renner, Roache, Sciorra), and this is a poignant if bloody valentine to the transition from childhood to adolescence.
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