Accidents - Totgeschwiegen

Greetings again from the darkness. You know how we always hear that there are no secrets in a small town – how everyone knows your business? This first feature film from writer/director Sara Colangelo exposes the fallacy of that notion. It seems all residents of this small mining community are carrying secrets, and some are whoppers!

The story picks up about a year after a horrible coal mining accident killed ten local miners. The lone survivor was Amos (Boyd Holbrook) who is struggling with physical limitations resulting from the incident. However, generating more pain for Amos than his withered arm and leg is the internal battle the ongoing investigation is causing him. Should he expose the known safety issues that caused his co-workers to die? If he does, those 10 families probably get justice and a financial reward, but the mine likely shuts down - crippling the local economy and throwing much of the town out of work. If keeps quiet, those families get nothing and it's business as usual for everyone else.

Amos is joined in a daily conundrum of secrets by: Owen (Jacob Lofland), who is much too young to handle the situation an accident has placed him; Owen's brother James (Beau Wright) who has Down Syndrome and is even less equipped to keep his secret; the mine's supervisor Bill (Josh Lucas) who defends his poor decisions by saying he only did what the company forced him to do; and Diane (Elizabeth Banks) who is Bill's wife and reacts to the disappearance of her son and lack of respect for her husband in a manner that can't possibly end well.

As is common in poverty-stricken communities, there is even more to add. Owen's father was one of the miners killed in the accident, and Owen was among the group who last saw Bill and Diane's son alive. Also, Amos is living with his father who is paying the health price for a lifetime of coal mining. The film is bookended by Amos' testimony regarding the accident, and in between we see these intertwined lives and much soul-suffering and personal stock-taking. It's a reminder of how powerful grief can be, especially after such an instantaneous tragedy.

Boyd Holbrook and Jacob Lofland deliver outstanding performances. Mr. Holbrook's career is in skyrocket mode as he appeared in 8 projects during 2013-14 (including Gone Girl, The Skeleton Twins), and has 5 more for 2015 (including Terrence Malick's next film). Young Mr. Lofland was a standout in both Mud (2012) and his recent recurring role on TV's Justified. Also of note is one of the few dramatic turns for Elizabeth Banks. We have come to expect comedy excellence from her (even as Effie in The Hunger Games), but we have rarely seen the emotional depth she portrays here.

The movie is beautifully shot by Rachel Morrison, and the film stock provides the grainy look that adds to the realistic feel necessary for us to be absorbed into this isolated world. Comparisons to other mining movies are expected, and North Country (2005) and Matewan (1987) come to mind, however, those were centered on mistreatment in the workplace and labor issues, respectively. This movie is much more concerned with grief, and for some reason The Stone Boy (1984) comes to mind. Dealing with tragedy does not become easier with age, financial status or social standing. Ms. Colangelo's film provides an intimate look at this.

"Your testimony as you can imagine is of the utmost importance to us."

Little Accidents is Sara Colangelo's debut feature film and despite some of the issues I had with the pacing and some unexpected turns the story takes it still had some solid performances that kept me engaged with the movie. With a little more polishing Colangelo may become an important filmmaker because she does manage to deliver some well crafted scenes and interesting characters. It is a character study of a small American coal mining town that has recently experienced a fatal accident that claimed the lives of several miners. Amos Jenkins (Boyd Holbrook) is the only survivor and on the one hand he is feeling forced to testify against the executives by the families' who have lost their loved ones, and on the other, miners from the same company want him to keep quiet so they can continue to work without experiencing any setbacks. He would rather stay quiet than say anything. The blame is mostly geared towards Bill Doyle (Hosh Lucas) who is an executive of the mining company. Meanwhile he and his wife, Diane (Elizabeth Banks), are dealing with the disappearance of their son JT (Travis Tope). The only person who knows what happened to JT is a young boy named Owen (Jacob Lofland) who would rather keep the secret to himself than confess what actually happened. Owen's father was also a victim of a coal mining accident and we see the contrast between his family and the Doyle's. Once we are introduced to all these characters we begin to see how some of them overlap with each other in a small town where secrets are hard to be kept. Colangelo sets up the story pretty convincingly but once the characters begin to interact with each other there are moments that feel forced and melodramatic. There is just too much going on in the town for a film like this.

What I enjoyed the most about Little Accidents despite all the melodrama and forced interactions it introduces were the performances from the cast. Elizabeth Banks has a much more subtle performance than what we are used to seeing her in and Josh Lucas is also believable as the mining executive who is trying to keep busy at work to keep his mind off of the loss of his son. However the two stand outs in this film are Boyd Holbrook and Jacob Lofland who are internally wrestling with secrets of their own. Lofland was outstanding in MUD although most of the attention was geared towards Tye Sheridan's performance. He is the one who has gotten much better roles, but that doesn't mean Lofland should be ignored and in this film he proves he has the acting chops to carry a film.

The greatest failure of Little Accidents is that it tries to cover too much melodrama in a short period of time. Instead of focusing on one of the accidents, it introduces us to another one and shows how some of the characters overlap with each other. I didn't find the relationship between Banks and Holbrook believable and it all felt rushed. The underlying message of the film seems to be that "truth will set you free," but in the end it was all too obvious and the audience is left unrewarded for the time they had invested in the film. I found some of the camera movement a bit distracting at times, but that is my only complaint in the technical department. In the end, Little Accidents simply doesn't deliver despite an interesting premise.

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I appreciate there may be temptation to "feminize" certain narratives but a mining disaster film is not one of them when the narrative's main tension is whether or not the protagonist male is or is not going to say one thing or the other. That was the tension in the film that was poorly developed in order to develop a side-bar that of itself was not developed either but was there in my view to justify Elizabeth Banks' character's errant behavior. As it was, her husband's character barely got a look in, despite his being blamed for the fandango, facing ruination and despite having to deal with the same (side-bar) loss as Elizabeth Banks.

I am not sure what the film was trying to say and therefore I give it only a 7. This said, the performances were super and the photography very impressive. The director (who also wrote this) has a very strong talent in my view but must resist the urge to feminize narratives to the point of it losing focus on what the central drama is: men losing lives and whether the mine will survive (to the relief of the remaining miners) or close on account of compensation payments that will bankrupt it (to the relief of the families caught)

This film tells the story of a mining town struck by a tragic mining accident. The after effects have far racing consequences to the residents in the whole town.

"Little Accidents" is a very dark film, so dark that it dragged my mood down within minutes of watching it. It captures hopelessness, helplessness and desperation of many individuals in the town, no matter what social stratum they belong to. The sadness lingers on throughout the film, because of unfinished businesses which should provide suspense but instead gives a haunting atmosphere. The ending gives a little closure to some of the subplots but not all, leaving businesses unfinished. I am so saddened by the film, it's very powerful.

"What do you think it's like to die?" Owen (Jacob Lofland)

It's a given that tragic death in a small town stays forever, impinging on virtually every life now and hereafter. First-time writer-director Sara Colangelo's Little Accidents, set in a coal town, echoes The Sweet Hereafter's frozen aftermath of children's deaths aboard a bus plunging into a pond. Both involve decisions to reveal or not the culpable parties; both intercut among those players who are most affected by the tragedy.

Young Owen (Jacob Lofland) witnesses the death of JT (Travis Tope) and hides the truth. JT is the son of manager Bill Doyle (Josh Lucas) and Owen is a deceased coal miner's son. The accident that killed his dad and nine others is under investigation as the union fights to suppress testimony from conflicted survivor Amos (Boyd Holbrook, who reminds me of Keith Carradine) that would incriminate the coal company and shut down the mine.

You can see the inter-connections, as is true in any small town, and the inherent conflicts, exacerbated by the closeness and the sometimes illicit connections, such as JT's mom, Diana Doyle (Elizabeth Banks), and Amos. Colangelo keeps the plot slowly moving ahead while some characters and events border on the formulaic. When Owen helps Diana with her garden, the plot takes an unfortunate contrivance tack. Yet the drama is still effectively bound to us as figurative for communal responsibility and domino-effect relationships and tragedies.

Cinematographer Rachel Morrison effectively creates the working-class milieu, much as in Out of the furnace, in part because she uses a great deal of natural light reinforced by old-fashioned 35mm film. It's not a gloomy world, just one dominated by grey skies and dim futures. No sunshine can mitigate the sense of loss pervading the town. These Accidents are hardly little.