First Hit: A good film about two young people who have obvious wounds and are looking to grow through them.
I’m waiting for Robert Pattinson to be offered and/or accept a role which has his character be something other than dark, moody, mumbling his words, and wounded in some way.
In this film he is a wounded character again and I must say he has it down pretty good. It has a wonderful effect on young girls in the theater (the whole row behind me) want to save him.
Anyway Pattinson plays Tyler Hawkins estranged son of a rich powerful New York executive named Charles Hawkins (played by Pierce Brosnan). As the story unfolds he’s estranged because his older brother Michael killed himself and Tyler blames some of it on their dad. He also has a younger sister named Caroline (played by Ruby Jerins) who depends on Tyler for love and guidance.
One evening Tyler tries to assist two innocent men from getting beat up by a couple of bullies and ends up mouthing off to a police Sergeant (played by Chris Cooper) who, in-turn, beats him and then throws him in jail. His roommate, Adin (played by Tate Ellington), gets him to date the sergeant’s daughter Ally Craig (played by Emilie de Ravin) to somehow get back at the Sergeant.
Ally’s own life is tragic because she witnessed her mother's murdered on a subway platform when she was 11 years old. These two wounded people like each other and go through their individual trials and tribulations as the relationship evolves.
The story line has a unhappy ending which I found intriguing, however I did see this ending prior to the major clue being given in the film.
Pattinson, as I mentioned before, has sullen and troubled down pat and here he does it well again. Ravin was compelling as Ally and I liked her involvement during the film. Jerins was great as the young sister and felt she glued a lot of the story together. Brosnan was effectively distant, cold, and affected as the hurting father. Although Cooper is usually dead on perfect with his character, here I didn’t buy his character. There was something missing. The story by Will Fetters was good and I liked how he linked Gandhi and other philosophical points view into the script. Ellington was the worst part of the film. I couldn’t see him being the actual roommate as his character was overly insensitive and mostly clueless. Allen Coulter directed and although it isn’t a groundbreaking film, the lighting and shots effectively captured being in New York. He also kept the pacing even and it seemed the actors were well in hand.
Overall: This isn’t a great film. And, it probably will do well with the teenage and early twenties crowd as it has appeal. It also has strong lines sprinkled throughout if one really listens to the dialogue.