Blind Prophecy

Okay, we’re taking most of today off from the Festival (although we’re heading to two screenings later this evening, followed by the Cake concert). Michael and I were both feeling rather hung over this morning (looooots of free booze at the Queer Lounge Opening Party yesterday) and decided to blow off the panels we were thinking about attending.

Anyway, it gives me some time to write up some reviews. I’ll put them in separate posts so that you can avoid spoilers for any flicks you might want to check out when these start playing elsewhere.

First up… Loggerheads. Written and directed by Tim Kirkman, the cast includes Bonnie Hunt, Kip Pardue, Tess Harper, Michael Learned, Michael Kelly, and Chris Sarandon.

After seeing Happy Endings the previous day, what really struck me was that Loggerheads dealt with many of the same topics in a completely different way. While Happy Endings was a dark comedy, Loggerheads was a tearjerker drama.

The biggest spoiler that will help you understand Loggerheads is that the three different stories being told are happening on Mother’s Day weekend of three separate years. I caught this early on, but the clues are very subtle (i.e. which President is speaking on the radio in the background of establishing scenes).

Mark (Kip Purdue) is a young man who has come the Kure Beach, North Carolina, to help save the Loggerhead Turtles. He’s also running away from a very conservative family which couldn’t deal with the fact that he was gay. He meets George (Michael Kelly), the owner of a local motel, and finds a friend where he didn’t expect one. Mark thinks George is offering to help in exchange for sex, but after telling George that he’s HIV positive, he learns that the man is still grieving for his own lost lover. The two form a bond, but Mark has to decide whether to put his trust in someone and settle down, or move on. Mark

Elizabeth (Tess Harper) is frustrated with living as the wife of a minister (Chris Sarandon). Whether dealing with the antics of her more liberal neighbor Ruth (Ann Pierce) who places a statue of David on the front lawn where everyone has to look at it – or in trying to decide how to handle the new neighbors, two men who appear to be raising a child together. The town of Eden, North Carolina, has few secrets for Elizabeth, but no one ever asks about her runaway son, who disappeared after he was caught kissing a boy in the church. She struggles to decide whether to continue bowing before her husband’s conservative religious views or take a stand for herself. Finally, she opens up with Ruth and learns that her son is dying of AIDS and is living in Kure Beach.

Grace (Bonnie Hunt) has returned to her hometown of Asheton, North Carolina, to live with her mother (Michael Learned). Grace is a middle-aged woman who has recently spent time in a mental hospital for attempted suicide. Unable to hold down a job, she’s haunted by the question of what happened to her son, a child she was forced to give up for adoption by her mother when she became pregnant at 17. North Carolina law, however, makes it nearly impossible to reunite after a closed adoption, until Grace gets in contact with a woman whose underground network can find the son for a fee of $3000. Grace must confront her mother and they both decide it’s time to find out what happened. Sadly, though, when Grace finally does learn the names of the adopted parents, Mark is already dead and the only comfort Elizabeth can offer is to share what she knew of her son’s life.

Now, these three storylines are told simultaneously, and if you weren’t really watching closely, you would think that they are happening at the same time. Kirkman teases you to the point where you think these characters might have their happy reunion, but as the device is revealed, you discover the truth about the funky timeline and weep at the tragedy of it.

Of everyone in the cast, only Hunt was very familiar to me. Still, fine performances all around, and I found myself liking characters who would piss me off in real life. Most of the people populating this story are unabashedly Christian (including Mark, who gives a lovely speech about God) and that doesn’t change, but where they fall on the liberal/conservative scale does. But it’s a testament to the actors and the writer that I still found myself empathizing with people so very dissimilar to myself. Even the minister, who cannot bring himself to reconcile with his dying son, is a man who I could empathize with.

I’m not sure that I like the little touches that made this film “independent” – such as the metaphor of the turtles and their mating and migration habits. The cinematography is pretty standard (not bad, just the expected lovely scenic views of a state – North Carolina – which I get the impression that the author both loves and hates at the same time). Nor was I blown away by the soundtrack, editing, or any of those other touches. Really, the best thing about the show is the acting and the script.

Don’t look for a lot of opportunities to laugh, either. The joking dialogue between Mark and George as they’re getting to know one another, I’m not sure if it was unfunny because that was true to the characters, or because Kirkman doesn’t actually know any good jokes.

Still, a fascinating look at the differences and similarities between liberals and conservatives that ought to resonate particularly well in a post-Election-2004 America. The movie doesn’t demonize Christian conservatives except where they cannot overcome their own bigotries. Nor does the film glorify liberal gay people – it doesn’t shy away from realities like AIDS, prostitution, isolationism (i.e. gay ghettoes) and casual attitudes about sex. The message I walked away with is that like it or not, we’re all in this ship together and we need one another. We need each other as compassionate human beings who can learn to love even those who are different.

Filed under: livejournal by Jere Keys