[3.5/4.0]
Bus depots are not cheerful places. Often the people found inside are down on their luck, running away, or just poor. It is appropriate that a bus station is the setting for this film. It is a story of people towing their emotional baggage through the dreary way-points of their lives, trying to reach a better destination.
Siblings Judith (Heather Matarazzo) and Wesley (Zach Braff) are in transit, both literally and figuratively. They have just returned from a visit with their uncommunicative, institutionalized mother Trix (Bebe Neuwirth). Now they are waiting at the depot for buses that will take them to different destinations. Wesley is starting college, but Judith is still in high school. Their father Darrell (Mark Blum) has severed all ties with them, so they are virtually orphans. As the story opens, it is clear that Wesley and Judith have had a difficult family life, although the nature of their problems is not initially specified. It is clear that the two of them have provided the support to each other that has been denied by their parents.
While waiting for the buses, Judith is approached by Jimmy (Michael Weston), who claims he went to high school with her. Since her family has moved so many times, Judith cannot recollect if she has ever seen Jimmy before. She initially tries to avoid him, but due to boredom and the desire to distance her from the studious and dour Wesley, she begins talking to Jimmy. Mostly she listens because it is difficult to out-talk the loquacious Jimmy. He says he likes to travel, and at the very least he demonstrates this by going to different places in all the stories he tells. He talks of some of the regulars in the station and also constructs the stories of other travelers whose conversations he has overheard.
The film is an adaptation of short stories by celebrated modern American author Joyce Carol Oates. It is based on three separate stories from the collection "Heat". Although in the book the three are not connected, screenwriter and director Lisanne Skyler weaves them together by having the characters voice them to each other. This clever technique allows the stories to be told in a context where they are relevant, and it also allows the characters to reveal themselves in the process of telling and interpreting the stories.
The story begins opaquely as the characters are wrestling with a past that is unexplained. However, as the narrative progresses, the events that shaped the individuals form. Through flashback, Judith and Wesley's family life is reconstructed and understood. Judith (and the viewer) slowly connects with Jimmy by listening as he reveals himself in the stories he tells, and as other characters in the bus station contribute their own stories about him. The siblings are at an important time in their lives. As children they have always been together and relied on each other, but they are becoming adults, they are going their separate ways. The film captures the essence of their struggle, how people cope with difficulty, and how life experiences shape them and influence their decisions.
The film is not flawless. The drama is sometimes forced, and it sometimes feels the need to explicitly reveal events and situation that have already been implied. This is especially true as Jimmy is understood. Everything that needs to be understood about Jimmy is revealed indirectly in the stories and other conversations, so when his character is explicitly uncovered, it feels redundant. However, these flaws are easily forgivable because so much of the story is done right. One of the main themes is about using storytelling as a means of traveling, not to distant places, but to the interior of both the storyteller and the listener.
Highly recommended. The film is both well written and well acted. The narrative adeptly cuts between multiple stories and flashbacks without feeling disjointed or obtuse. Although it is not a cheerful film, it is compelling and engaging, and well worth seeing.
(c) 1999 Murali Krishnan The Art House Squatter http://ArtHouseSquatter.com
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