BEFORE: Man, but this was a TOUGH film to link to - it doesn't have many actors in it, and most of those I think must be Portland actors, because they've been in films like "The Hunted" and "Pig", which are also set there. I thought maybe I had a chance with Thomasin McKenzie, but then I watched "Last Night in Soho" last September, and that took away a link. She's also in "Old", but that didn't make the horror chain last year, so I couldn't put this one in between them. This doesn't feel like it belongs between two horror films, anyway - but it's probably been on my list for two years or maybe more, and this is the first valid chance I've had to fit it in somewhere. My other option was to get it in between two Ben Foster films, but I haven't even been close to doing that.
So Dale Dickey carries over from "Being Flynn". As I mentioned I've got a bunch of films with Dale Dickey in them, but for the purposes of creating the best January chain, it makes sense to watch just two of them this week, and then the rest at the end of the month, as a lead-in to the lead-in for the February romance chain. When I've got an abundance of films with one actor, and my month's plan just isn't making sense, sometimes it helps to split one or two buffaloes away from that herd, and then the other ones can be corralled a bit easier.
Some good news today, my mother's scheduled to get out of rehab tomorrow, and back to her senior living apartment. I'm hesitant to put too much personal stuff in my blog, because somebody stole my review of "City by the Sea" and published it online in some weekly report about Cape May, New Jersey. Sure, I mentioned Asbury Park's revival in there a bunch, but that's no excuse to steal a man's personal movie reviews. I should probably look into some legal recourse, but I haven't got the time or knowledge to do that - I guess I'm OK with my life being an open book, to a certain extent. Whatever. If today's review turns up in a Portland, OR newsletter or one about living outdoors, it just raises my visibility.
THE PLOT: A father and his thirteen-year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon, when a small mistake derails their lives forever.
AFTER: This film is based on a 2009 novel titled "My Abandonment", which is based on a true story. But as I said yesterday about "Being Flynn", that's two chances for facts to be changed around, one when the book was written and another when the screenplay was. Maybe making the film is a third chance, so I'm aware of NOT being aware how much truth is therefore in the film. The story is about a father and daughter who live outside, in an Oregon forest park named Forest Park. OK, so another theme for the week, except last night's film dealt with involuntary homelessness, and these two CHOOSE to live outdoors. It's not just that they're campers, there seems to be some underlying condition that makes this preferable.
I'll admit it, I missed it - I would have guessed that there was a death in the family, as Tom refers to her mother in the past tense, and that would be the reason why they can't live indoors, perhaps it would remind them of their past family life indoors, which is gone. But there's more to it, as Will, the father, is an Iraq War veteran with PTSD. Mea culpa - but this does explain why his survival skills are so good, and why he's trying to pass them on to his daughter. Together they travel into the city so Will can check in at the V.A. hospital, and he sells his medications to someone else living outdoors who knows what to do with them.
Despite all their training, one day daughter Tom is spotted by a jogger, and not long after that, a bunch of park rangers show up, along with social services, and they're both taken into custody for assessment. They pass the mental and physical exams, but despite their preference to return to the park and continue on as before, the case workers find Will a job at a Christmas tree farm and this comes with a small house that they can live in. While Tom makes some friends among the locals at a 4-H club, Will makes plans for them to bail - again, I didn't make the connection between his PTSD and the farm's use of helicopters to move trees around. That was probably a trigger for him, but I missed that, too.
The pair returns to the wild, after a bus trip, a railroad boxcar ride out of town and a lift from a paranoid truck driver they re-settle in Washington, the state, and they find a new patch of forest, only this one's colder than the one they were used to in Oregon. The cold forces them to break into a cabin to avoid frostbite or worse - and it seems like Will's rules about stealing go right out the window once the temperature drops below a certain level. Then an injury forces the issue, and Tom is forced to seek help from others to get Will the medical help he needs. This leads them to an RV camp where the people seem friendly, and Will is given a chance to heal, but he still wants to leave civilization as soon as he can. But Tom seems comfortable at the RV park, and might prefer to stay, which leads to a tough choice.
It's tunny, I was just talking with a friend about stray cats, and I've owned/shared space with 6 cats in my adult life, and 4 out of 6 have been taken in from the streets. It's a long and tough process to train an outdoor cat to live inside, I know that for sure, because I've done it. It doesn't really work past a certain age, so I can't really take in an adult feral cat, they're harder to train because they've lived outside for too long. Once we took in two kittens but left their mother outside, because she was too old, and hearing her cry when she couldn't find her kittens nearly broke me - but those kittens went on to lead long lives after a friend adopted them, so I tell myself that it was the right thing to do. In the end some cats are outdoor cats and some can become indoor cats, and maybe some people are the same way? That's all I've got tonight.
Also starring Ben Foster (last seen in "Get Over It"), Thomasin McKenzie (last seen in "Last Night in Soho"), Jeff Kober (last seen in "Sully"), Dana Millican (last seen in "Pig"), Michael Prosser, Derek Drescher, Isaiah Stone (last seen in "American Honey"), Alyssa McKay, Ryan Joiner, Spencer S. Hanley, Bob Werfelman, David M. Pittman, Susan Chernak McElroy, Ayanna Berkshire, Michael Draper, Jeff Rifflard, Michael Hurley, Marisa Anderson.
RATING: 5 out of 10 references to seahorses (this meant something, but I missed that too)
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