Crooked Hearts

As a young boy, Tom admires his older brother Charley (Vincent D'Onofrio). He follows him to the local diner hangout. Charley talks to Tom's crush waitress Jennetta. She tells them that she's willing to wait for their father (Peter Coyote) to settle matters. Some years later, Tom (Peter Berg) drops out of Berkley to go home. Ask (Noah Wyle), Charley, and Cassie (Juliette Lewis) are still living at home with mom (Cindy Pickett) and dad. Charley is bitter to escape but can't pull away from the gravity of the family. Tom dates Marriet Hoffman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is equally adrift in the world after leaving L.A. The family is slowly imploding from everybody's secrets.

This is one dysfunctional family. I like everyone in this cast although this may not be their most impressive performances. I was feeling this movie for the first half until the fire. I like the fire but the fire should be the climax. It can't get more climatic than the fire. The stuff after the fire is the family chasing their own tales. This family is not getting fixed without a healthy dose of psychotherapy. They need a cleansing fight to finish off the story so that they can start anew. It just drags on too long.

Any movie with Jennifer Jason Leigh, my favorite actress, automatically gets at least five stars. I have never seen her play a character and be less than riveting...until this film. She just plays a very minor role. On screen for less than ten minute, she is good, but bland compared to her other performances. The same thing can be said for Juliet Lewis. She is cute and natural as the family sister, as usual, but relatively bland.

Bland is a good word for this film. The plot, acting and directing is pedestrian and average, really television show quality. All three lead brothers went on to star in television shows, Peter Berg in "Chicago Hope," Noah Wyle in "E.R." (Doctors) and Vincent D'onofrio in "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" (Detective). It is nice to see them this young, before they moved to television.

The movie is essentially about two brothers and their attempts to move away from their family. Apparently the family is a warm and loving place, but because their father had an affair with a waitress, it is all a sham. The characters keep saying that the family holds them back from doing bigger and better things, but that is not evident in anything that happens.

There are several rather interesting scenes and shots, but they are in the last 1/3 of the film. If you can get past the first hour which drags, it does improve somewhat. The burning of the father's love letters scene sticks out for the tension it builds as the letters seem to escape and start burning dangerously close to a gas station.

Their are better movies of this genre out there, but if you have seen "East of Eden," "Hotel New Hampshire," Running WithScissors, and other better dysfunctional family movies, you might consider this movie. It is dull, but has enough mildly entertaining moments to make it watchable.

My late wife and I always agreed that whenever Malkin called a movie 2 1/2 stars, it tended to be a winner. 3 stars tended to be way overrated on the basis of the actors' reputations, and four stars meant predictable Hollywood hoke and Malkin's tendency to suck up to the industry. See his contradictory reviews of Sergeant Rutledge and Breaker Morant.

I spent my career as a stage director with a hiatus doing TV. My search for segues became unrelenting and I was particularly impressed with the way in which this film flowed. Character development was also impressive. The extent to which the family was/had been dysfunctional was marvelously understated. Certainly a minimalist triumph.

Some very strong performances here, deft writing, and superior editing make for a seamless production. The end result is a small treasure. Reminds me of Virgin Suicides.

How to parents name their child Ask? The female roles are weak. Vincent Do nofrio has always been an actor that's a bit off. In some of his movies you wonder what you will get. From his dark portrail of a newly minted soldier in basic training, to this movie where he seems normal, then to his later movies where that dark person returns. This show reminds me of one of my favorite shows Crash, from 2004. You have to watch it a few times to understand the different movies within the movie. I liked the movie. I saved it and will watch again and again.

I saw this film recently on cable and found it almost Shakespearean in its depiction of family trouble: fundamental character flaws or weaknesses leading to tragedy, pride keeping the truth from being known when it would be better to bring things out in the open, old secrets coming back to wreak havoc.

It's not always an easy film to watch, because you want to stop certain things from happening. But every character is multi-dimensional and real, and - as in Shakespeare - there is humor in the story and hope for recovery and redemption in the end. I cared about these people and their situation.

Slow going at times, but give it a chance - it lingers.