A New England couple's college-aged son dates an older woman with two small children and an unwelcome ex-husband with ultimately tragic results.
Starring Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, and Marisa Tomei
Man it was nice to watch something made in the past decade. This was a nice little quiet, subdued, conventionally-shot piece of work that was surprisingly unambitious for a first time director of a full feature film (although that didn't hurt it). I enjoyed the prolonged sessions of silence, as it seemed the viewers were almost able to better understand the characters and their thoughts and motivations through just watching them.
Tom Wilkinson shined as the mentally tortured aging father, and it was nice to see him in a leading role for once. The ending, while surprising and somewhat against the style of the film, really worked well and wrapped up a good piece of cinema from the new millenium. This probably should have taken Best Picture in 2001 over A Beautiful Mind.
