Sweet Thing

Whew! This overwrought film about an emotionally damaged artist whose controversial work embarrasses his Dad, a judge now running for Congress, is a chore to watch.

The movie was meant to be grittily realistic, but couldn't overcome the two-dimensional nature of the main characters. The Dad was a caricature, an insanely ambitious, deceitful, and hypocritical politician. The son was a caricature, too -- an artist who must tell the truth through his art and suffers mightily for his brutal honesty -- a put-upon martyr and saint.

Exhausting, totally exhausting.

This movie got under my skin and stayed with me for days. A brilliant piece of work from the casting to the soundtrack. Director Mark David's first feature film is better than most big budget sappy attempts at drama. Weaker viewers may not be able to handle such dark subject matter but I personally was enthralled from beginning to end.

As with many first films, the director is also the writer is also an actor is also the composer. Given the miniscule budget, there's some good work here, creating strong visuals, and decent performances out of actors you mostly haven't heard of. The art is amazing and disturbing, not at all amateurish, and the soundtrack fits the mood. The writing is flawed, and many people may be turned off by the film's ironic or cliche' plot twists. But, big picture: Sweet Thing was an ambitious project which may have bit off more than it can chew, but it's a powerful film that gives insight to the director's longterm potential.