At a fleabag motel outside Reno, Jerry Lee (Dorff) wakes up his younger brother Frank (Hirsch), telling him a story about his crazy girlfriend (Bergere) burning his clothes before he had an accident on the snowy drive home in which a child may have been killed. So Frank kicks into gear, plotting to get out of town by wagering the little money he can raise with the help of his friends Tommy and Al (Leonard and Harpster). He also turns to an old mentor (Kristofferson) for advice and considers reconciling with his ex Annie (Fanning).

The sibling filmmakers add several vivid visual touches. The stories Frank tells to calm Jerry Lee are illustrated with gorgeous animation styled after the sketches Jerry Lee makes from them. And there are also evocative flashbacks of the brothers as teens (played by Lee and Backstrom) when they tried to stay together after their mother (Youngblut) died and Jerry Lee was badly injured. They've never had a chance to live up to their potential, but they've always had each other.

Dorff overplays the more colourful role as the desperate, frazzled, hapless Jerry Lee, while Hirsch impresses with his quietly understated performance as a loner who has spent his life caring for a lost cause he can't help but love. Frank is a likeable, multi-talented guy who needs to be reminded that he's not a loser. Fanning is also strong as a woman who knows her weaknesses and is doing her best.

The gentle, plaintive tone lets the film fairly burst with suppressed yearning. Every character in the film is a wounded soul who speaks in whispers and struggles with physical and emotional issues. This makes the feel a bit slow and mopey, livened up by some offhanded humour and energetic camaraderie between the brothers. And at its core, this is a story about how scar tissue never goes away. We just have to learn to live with it.

themes, language, violence, sexuality

2.Apr.14