PDXozoner

Let me say up front that I think it's incredibly difficult and rare for a first time film director to have the discipline to effectively direct his own script. Granted Ryan Craig's written and directed a couple of TV movies, but things change a lot when you're doing a real grownup film. The chance to see your every word and decision on the big screen makes it agonizing to cut a single scene... hey! You wrote that! That said, there are some excellent performances from a cast loaded with accomplished actors, not least Shawn Christian who's best known for his soap opera career and Chris Pine who gets to indulge his hunky looks while playing some seriously downer scenes. I don't think John Hawke (Winter's Bone and The Sessions) is capable of a bad performance and this one gives him plenty of room.

I gave it a 5 because of the writer-director's failure to make the fullest use of this wealth of talent, but since the film is playing on HBO and it's not a halfbad way to spend an evening.

The bad news is that this is Brian Tucker's first produced film script. One wonders what in the name of Hollywood made Mark Wahlberg want to produce it. It's rife with clichés, unlikely twists, unlikelier character development, and plodding plotting. One of my favorite scenes typifies the film's sensibility. It the has the Mayor's wife- complete with bodyguard and limo- conducting a secret rendezvous on a riverfront promenade... disguised by a scarf and BIG sunglasses on a gray overcast day.

The worse news is that some really competent, if not gifted, actors waste their time here. Whatever money they were paid was not worth the waits.

And the worst news is that according to IMDb, Tucker has another script in pre-production. The new one is called "Expiration" and people who really enjoy movies should hope that the title is predictive of the script's shelf life.

It's a pleasant movie particularly for pre-teens but it has so many moments when characters do completely illogical things that it begins to generate groans of "Oh come on," and I'm not referring to the psychic plot points which are perfectly acceptable given the nature of the story.

The acting is competent, if not particularly inspired, all around but the reviewer who criticized the "robust cheerfulness" of the young actress who plays Perdita was spot on.

I kept watching in no small measure because of the location shots which are lovely, but if I were Scottish, I'd be thoroughly cranky about the clichéd stereotypes written for most of the supporting characters.