As much as I found this movie eminently watchable I'm not sure it's much more than movie of the week material. In its favour it had Martin Donovan and Edie Falco playing the mother and father roles. Donovan plays a creepy hands on father to his teenage daughter while Falco is an extremely desparate housewife resorting to a chemical hodgepodge to see her through her mundane suburban existence married to a man who has found this year's model much more to his liking.
Unlike most movies of the week much of this film is shot in dark, muted tones. This is not a happy movie and to its credit their is no cop out ending. Camilla Belle, who played opposite Daniel Day Lewis earlier this year in "The Ballad of Jack and Rose", plays the deaf teenager Dot who comes to stay with her foster family (Donovan, Falco and their daughter played by Elisha Cuthbert) after the death of her parents.
She is the best thing in this film given little to say and having to convey much with a look or abrupt action. Dot finds the transition to life with her new family difficult and needless to say she's not exactly the exalted new kid at the local high school. Quite why a deaf kid is dropped in to the local high school is left unexplained. Maybe this is standard practice these days as we see Dot attending classes with her personal sign language translator. Is this where my taxes go? But I digress.
The focus here is on Dot and her attempts to come to terms with her new life. There are a lot of about-faces in this film which ultimately lead to the demise of one of the main characters and may also try your patience. Not exactly hall of fame material but a good mid-winter, fuck all else to do, rental.
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