Wilbur Falls

This was one of those cool movies that starts off with a simple story and then keeps layering. Shanee Edwards, who played the lead character Renata, did a great job bringing this character to life on the screen. Renata is complex and passionate, towing the line between childhood fun and adult sexuality. She wants to fit in like everyone else, but decides not to be powerless when she's subjected to humiliation. She fulfills all of our fantasies by getting back at the mean kids, but unfortunately, her plan goes awry. I would like to see a part two to see how her life turned out.

I actually enjoyed this film. Yes it's not great, and probably fair at best, but it has some really good moments and really held my interest the whole way through. Kudos to the first time director/writer. It has actually won some awards at film festivals around the world including a best drama at the Las Vegas Film Festival in 98. So you know it might actually go somewhere. I can see it on Showtime or something or at least on video. I thought the scenery was great, and so was Danny Aiello. The lead girl was quite impressive, especially for a complete unknown (at least I didn't know her). Also, look for the woman who plays her sister and the guy who plays her best friend - they add some great comic relief. The editing is kinda lousy, there are definite plot holes, and you can see it's kinda low-budget, but at least I didn't walk away feeling I had wasted my time.

It may be a "teen movie" but it touched on some current themes in a tasteful manner. I disagree with the previous review that it was "terrible"; it was not. Aiello was a believable, sad and frustrated character wanting to show his daughter (Shanee Edwards) he loved her. I'm sure the topics of abortion, girl-girl loving and poor Harley the dog's death may be anathema to some but in the whole context of the film they were reasonable and well done. So it's not academy award stuff, it was fun to watch and the ending was not what I had expected.

So much so that it is distracting and it's very difficult to get into the story. It seemed like about ten different movies, randomly pieced together.

Were the actors and actresses making up the story as they went along?

The actress playing Renata is a beautiful and apparently gifted musician. Danny Aiello is one of the most magnificent actors ever, but I gotta wonder if he read the script before he took the part.

I had the fortune of seeing this film at the Northampton Film Festival in the fall of 1998. The story centers around Renata, a precocious teen, whose life veers out of control after an unfortunate "incident." The dark comedy, subject matter, and general feel of the film is very reminiscent of the movie HEATHERS. Fans of that movie and genre should find this to be a most enjoyable film.