Review: Little Accidents
Every movie comes with a set of contrivances. Depending on the skill of execution, these can come off as rote and formulaic. There is a defense to be made for these maneuverings, predictable as they may be; the plotting still has to make sense, after all, and half the fun is in seeing how well the tactics succeed or fail.
Little Accidents begins in the aftermath of a fatal mining accident that has left ten men dead and a small community in conflict over the coal company's accountability. There is a lone survivor, one Amos Jenkins (Boyd Holbrook), who shrivels from the pressure of the opposing expectations. The families of the deceased miners want his testimony to place the blame on the coal company to ensure a big cash settlement in the class action suit; the other employees, meanwhile, want him to keep his mouth shut to guarantee their continued employment.
The families of the accident victims have already received an initial payoff from the coal company. One of the widowers Kendra (Chloë Sevigny) spends some of it on video games for her teenage son Owen (Jacob Lofland) and a swing set for his Down syndrome-afflicted brother James (Beau Wright). Owen and his family are taunted as trailer trash by his more well-off schoolmates like JT (Travis Tope). Still, Owen wants to be a part of JT's group even if JT's father Bill (Josh Lucas) might be the company man primarily responsible for the mining tragedy that took the life of Owen's father. The two boys lash out at each other in the woods; the confrontation results in JT's accidental death.
Wracked with guilt, Owen finds himself forming a friendship with JT's grieving mother Diana (Elizabeth Banks) who, in turn, romantically involves herself with Amos. These pairings, and the eventual triangulation, all make perfect sense. All three are caught in their own private hells, and all can empathise with one another in a way their families cannot. Though the foundation is barely built before they're regularly trysting in motel rooms, it is still a lovely moment to see Diana and Amos slowly reach out to touch hands and feel relief at finally finding a long-sought comfort. Equally, there's a rightness in the way Amos indirectly counsels Owen.
The plotting is all but geometric, the familiarity of the themes at play is unavoidable, and the last 20 minutes are problematic in their fumbled rush at resolution, but Little Accidents is an admirable debut from writer-director Sara Colangelo. Part of it is due to the authenticity she and cinematographer Rachel Morrison bring to the proceedings. The insularity of the community is keenly felt - for the hardscrabble inhabitants, they were born here and they will die here - as is the marked divide between the privileged and the proles.
Most of the film's success draws from the performances of its three protagonists. Banks reminds audiences how equally effective she can be in dramatic roles. Lofland, who made a remarkable debut in Mud and continued to impress in season five of Justified, is a compelling performer, ably conveying the weight of his burden. Holbrook, resembling a hollowed angel, etches a fine portrait of a scarred and tormented man struggling to do the right thing.
Little Accidents
Directed by: Sara Colangelo
Written by: Sara Colangelo
Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Elizabeth Banks, Jacob Lofland, Josh Lucas, Chloë Sevigny, Alexis Rasmussen, James DeForest Parker, Beau Wright, Travis Tope
