Pearl

Anthony LaPaglia was solid throughout, that's the only real positive I have here. Otherwise, this movie, with so much potential for emotion in its subject matter, seriously lacked a punch. I love indies and finding hidden gems but this was very amateurish in execution and dialogue, and failed to move me emotionally. Skip this one.

A startling beginning brings two characters together in a smart sensitive story of alienation and love.Director,writer Bobby Roth knows about grief and violence,but he doesn't push this in your face.Rather he puts Pearl, the young girl of the story,in the care of a self loathing drunk. Sparks fly when they meet,but the two actors -Larsen Thompson and Anthony Lapaglia , as her unwilling carer, circle each other, tentatively and we dont know what to expect. The skill of the writing and the performances, leads us to some unusual places, but slowly we begin to care about these people in a surprising way. This is not a daytime melodrama or thriller, but a subtle,enjoyable tale of kindness .

My husband and I watched Pearl the other night and found it beautiful to watch, even though the subject matter was darker than I expected. The first thought we had after watching the film was .... "poetry in motion." There was a touch of metaphysics in a graveyard scene near the end that brought in a few tears, along with a skosh of the spiritual and the unknown knowingness that there is a thread in life that is unseen, but often felt. Moments at those intersections help to recalibrate difficult, sometimes untenable emotions. We thought the director did a damn good job of dealing with trauma and tragedy in a unique way. We enjoy films that encourage us to look between the lines at what isn't being said.... Pearl did that for us. The light hand of music placed thoughtfully throughout was a beautiful choice. And Patti Scialfa's voice is angelic. We're embarrassed to say we had never heard its stand alone unique beauty before. The music and the lyrics touched us deeply. Good performances from the cast. Solid direction from the director.

This looks like it should be a Hallmark or Lifetime movie.

It just doesn't work.

Every scene (I watched) was awkward AF.

The scene where she goes to see her father was horrible.

I pulled the plug at 30 minutes.

The movie never really kicked into gear, as the entire story is quite dull. The characters were initially not introduced beyond the surface and as the movie progressed there were some attempts to further develop these characters. Alas, this did not only take way too long, but were underwhelming flat. The acting was so plain - the characters never shed a tear... Also, can they not at least try to look like they are playing the piano?

The cinematography was incompetent, as the camera crew could be seen throughout the movie. The directing was odd too, with constant flashbacks repeatedly interrupting the flow of the movie - even though it was an attempt to convey a characters emotions.

The movie tried time and time again to introduce a new conflict to not lose interest in the script - and it was a failure every single time, since they never influenced the story or the characters in anyway...

The ending was a letdown, and not because of the ending, but the build up. A simple run-through of the script and it would be too apparent that the movie focused on the wrong relationship between the characters...