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★★★½☆
26 January 2017
A movie review of STRANGE WEATHER. |
“I am not accompanying you on a mission of violence,” Byrd Ritt (Carrie Coon)
Holly Hunter compels as a mother reassessing her son's suicide. There is a non-preachy damning of financial inequality. “Money begets money,” a character opines. Doors of opportunity are theoretically open to everyone, but the race to reach them is staggered. STRANGE WEATHER is not quite IN THE BEDROOM, but what is?
The story could have been GET CARTER on a rampage of revenge, but opts for humanism and a more measured response. The inevitable confrontation might have gone a dozen different ways, and actually lands on a gladly satisfying and unobvious conclusion. Because Darcy (Holly Hunter) has no plan, it makes the plot less obvious.
Holly Hunter compels as a mother reassessing her son's suicide. There is a non-preachy damning of financial inequality. “Money begets money,” a character opines. Doors of opportunity are theoretically open to everyone, but the race to reach them is staggered. STRANGE WEATHER is not quite IN THE BEDROOM, but what is?
The story could have been GET CARTER on a rampage of revenge, but opts for humanism and a more measured response. The inevitable confrontation might have gone a dozen different ways, and actually lands on a gladly satisfying and unobvious conclusion. Because Darcy (Holly Hunter) has no plan, it makes the plot less obvious.
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Darcy Baylor is a university academic administrator. She has impressively attended grad school, as a mature student, in her spare time. Darcy is certainly mentally strong - how do you function with such tragedy weighing on you? Like all people, she is both remarkable and unremarkable – not many of those take centre stage on the silver screen.
Her son, Walker Baylor (Ransom Ashley), is someone driving the plot under the surface that we barely get a glimpse of. No flashbacks. Contrast THE LIMEY and MESSAGE FROM THE KING. Here, writer-director Katherine Dieckmann has justified confidence in Holly Hunter to deliver the necessary emotional heft. The audience is in the dark until new insights shine a light on his passing. Darcy did not ask the right questions at the time, understandably.
Self-flagellation as a mother. A lot of what ifs. Barely bearable guilt. Hunter conveys these, while still giving the character an engaging forthright candour. Some big questions are not answered, so as to provide us extra to ponder. Why would a son kill himself in his mother’s house? Is it solely a harsh act on his part, or a desire to be in the space of his closest person?
It has been seven years since 24-year-old Walker took his own life. STRANGE WEATHER is a police procedural without the police. A sad picture emerges for both Darcy and Walker. Coincidences occur to reopen old wounds that never healed properly.
STRANGE WEATHER is a look at a community both positively (supporting of the protagonist) and negatively (callousness). This is not depressing, rather the tragedy of undue burdens.
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