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★★★½☆
10 January 2018
A movie review of OUTSIDE IN. |
“I keep thinking they are going to put me back in,” Chris (Jay Duplass)
Morality and laws in Western societies have been shaped by Christianity. One of the main tenets of the religion is forgiveness. A wonderful idea (if at times difficult to achieve). Thus, shouldn’t criminals who have served their time in prison in these countries, on release, and contrite, receive society’s forgiveness? That does not happen to varying degrees, from criminal records to a permanent bar from voting. One can understand the former, but not the latter. If you are eligible to pay taxes, you should be eligible to vote to decide how they are spent.
Cinema and television is starting to look at prison aftermath, e.g. A DATE FOR MAD MARY (2016) and I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (2008). Why do you think this is? Perhaps because it has come to the attention of filmmakers how the justice system:
- Is weighted against the poor (bail, legal representation, etc.) – THE NIGHT OF (2016),
- Does not want a jury trial (plea bargaining) – ROMAN J. ISRAEL (2017),
- Is racist – CROWN HEIGHTS (2017),
- Penitentiary punishment is a business needing to be fed – INTO THE ABYSS (2011),
- Etc.
Morality and laws in Western societies have been shaped by Christianity. One of the main tenets of the religion is forgiveness. A wonderful idea (if at times difficult to achieve). Thus, shouldn’t criminals who have served their time in prison in these countries, on release, and contrite, receive society’s forgiveness? That does not happen to varying degrees, from criminal records to a permanent bar from voting. One can understand the former, but not the latter. If you are eligible to pay taxes, you should be eligible to vote to decide how they are spent.
Cinema and television is starting to look at prison aftermath, e.g. A DATE FOR MAD MARY (2016) and I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (2008). Why do you think this is? Perhaps because it has come to the attention of filmmakers how the justice system:
- Is weighted against the poor (bail, legal representation, etc.) – THE NIGHT OF (2016),
- Does not want a jury trial (plea bargaining) – ROMAN J. ISRAEL (2017),
- Is racist – CROWN HEIGHTS (2017),
- Penitentiary punishment is a business needing to be fed – INTO THE ABYSS (2011),
- Etc.
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OUTSIDE IN looks at a man, Chris, from the day of his release. He served 20 years for murder. Like WHO WE ARE NOW (2017), it is awhile before we find out whether or not Chris’s incarceration was a miscarriage of justice. There are no flashbacks to view the crime. For the most part, it is a deeply sorrowful character study. Chris does not look old. He must have been young when he went inside. The audience discovers he was only 18 at the time. His persona is that of a puppy dog, and one can only imagine how traumatic the sentence.
It is seemingly autumn in a drab small town. At a sad homecoming party, his parents are notably absent. No mother is in attendance, suggesting she moved away due to the shame. And also she believed her son guilty. Chris is most excited to see Carol (Edie Falco), his high school teacher who campaigned for his freedom. Understandably affectionate towards his sole champion, OUTSIDE IN continually strays into the socially uncomfortable. Chris’s life was effectively paused. There is arrested development on certain levels. He has been left behind.
There is hope and positivity amongst the regret. The tension between Carol and Chris is more than plutonic. OUTSIDE IN is also an intergenerational love story. One might guess at mother-figure armchair psychoanalysis here, but at its essence true love is loyalty. The film covers the collateral damage to Carol’s family. The price her daughter Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Tom (Charles Leggett) paid for decades of dedication to Chris’s release. Though it is the chicken and the egg with Tom. Did she neglect him first, or was it the other way around?
Director Lynn Shelton upped her comedy game with LAGGIES (2014), and now ups her drama game.
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