Synopsis
Redemption begins at home
When a New York lawyer returns to his Boston hometown to reunite his dying friend with his young son, he is forced to finally confront a childhood trauma.
2021 Directed by Sean Gannet
When a New York lawyer returns to his Boston hometown to reunite his dying friend with his young son, he is forced to finally confront a childhood trauma.
A bit all over the place, writing could have been stronger, and I could’ve done without the magical negro trope… otherwise, this was a very unique film and listening to the writer talk about the origins of this story’s conception and a bit of the notes they were attempting to hit during the film, it’s super interesting to hear process I’ll say that much. Was a bit long though.
@ Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival
Ah, another one of my less-than-favorite movie plots, the one built entirely out of people making unreasonable requests and just not telling people the truth. It is at least suitably short, so the filmmakers don't have to keep making flimsier excuses for two hours. Still, it's not hard to feel that this capable cast and set of characters with an interesting history could have had another story built around them, one not so built around deception. After all, this isn't really a movie about people who don't understand each other; they know each other all too well and just don't have a lot of time.
Still, the movie gets some good mileage from its working-class neighborhoods and mostly-unaffected acting. It's…
The poster and the premise might lead one to expect another low-budget, mean-streets-of-Boston crime drama; thankfully, this goes a little deeper than that set-up. 25 years after a traumatic event that we only see fragments of until its full scope is revealed towards the end, Ronnie (Neal Brown, Jr.) returns to Roslindale, his childhood neighborhood to visit his dying former pal, Joey (Jeremy Sisto). From his hospital bed, the latter asks the former to seek out his ex-wife Pattie (Nicky Whelan) in hopes of seeing his 10-year-old son before his death. In an interesting, if not entirely novel twist, Ronnie keeps his contact with Joey a secret from Pattie, who also grew up in the neighborhood.
While the film often…