Review: All We Had

All We Had, an adaptation on Annie Weatherwax's 2014, is less remarkable for being actress Katie Holmes' directorial debut than it is for featuring her best performance to date. Holmes has always been a reticent presence but as single mom Rita Carmichael she displays a blowsiness that unleashes depths heretofore merely hinted at.

Rita and 14-year-old daughter Ruthie (Stefania Owen) are tumbleweeds, blowing from one town to the next in their barely functioning red jalopy. Rita may be a royal screw-up but it's clear that she'll do anything for her daughter and that her daughter would do the same, though the latter is all too aware of her mother's deficiencies. "My mother was better at loving men than choosing them," Ruthie observes at one point as Rita entangles herself with yet another man who will save her from her dire circumstances.

Their vagabonding is momentarily paused when Rita is forced to take on a waitressing job at a diner in order to pay for the food she and Ruthie stole. Their fortunes seem to take a turn for the better. Instead of sleeping in their car, which as broken down, the diner's owner Marty (Richard Kind) allows them to sleep in the back room. Ruthie befriends Marty's transgender niece Pam (Eve Lindley) and even starts going to a proper school. Rita, meanwhile, involves herself with a real estate agent (Mark Consuelos), who convinces her to take out a subprime loan so she and Ruthie can set down roots in a recently foreclosed home. Just as quickly as things seem better, they suddenly turn worse.

As a director, Holmes is still finding her feet. She knows enough to present the situations in an admirably unadorned manner, but is not quite skilled enough to elevate the film above run-of-the-mill. The adaptation by Josh Boone and Jill Killington, replete with overly earnest voiceovers and predictable plotting, doesn't help matters though the actors are talented enough to overcome the script's broadly sketched characterisations and clumsy pacing. Luke Wilson, as the one decent guy in Rita's life, does particularly fine work as does Lindley, who is lovely and touching.

All We Had

Directed by: Katie Holmes

Written by: Josh Boone, Jill Killington; adapted from the novel by Annie Weatherwax

Starring: Katie Holmes, Stefania Owen, Luke Wilson, Richard Kind, Eve Lindley, Mark Consuelos, Judy Greer