Refuge

I stumbled across this on Netflix and apparently this was perhaps a straight to DVD video, so I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be a sweet, heartfelt drama. Amy is a young woman with a bright future and college scholarship but chooses to stay home to care for her younger siblings when their parents abandon them. The movie starts after she has been home for a while and is dealing with the frustrations of small town life with parental responsibilities of two teenagers. When a stranger, Sam, drifts into town with his own challenges and interacts with Amy, they each have to come to terms with what happiness means to them.

I've seen plenty of big budget and blockbuster movies, intricate plots, and success in the big-time.

REFUGE is none of these. It shows dirt poor and small ambition people making life better between themselves. As a writer and someone who likes seeing honest character portrayals, i give it 9 stars. It's too bad movies like this don't get a wide theater release. With a theme like this, it was probably too difficult finding a buyer, or getting Hollywood interested in this.

I like the way these young people found a way to happiness by coming to terms with their own problems, and that they realized they could help each other by being together. It's such a simple lesson, well written and delivered by the actors. I have more respect for characters created like these, than those caught up in the twists and turns of how to get rich.

Rarely write reviews but feel I had to counterbalance the bad ones above. I also stumbled upon this one on Netflix. Sure glad it got a second chance there. I completely fell for this movie, it made me cry which hasn't happened in a very long time from movies. Someone complained of its being unbelievable but please which movie isn't, Lord of the Rings?. The most unbelievable part from a non-US perspective would be the parents leaving like that. But that aside I felt the story well written, the characters believable, the acting fantastic and the movie as a whole felt true and well just wonderful. Can't believe the rating (from the very few who seem to have seen it) is so low but note that Im not alone in really liking it. Interesting how people judge films so differently. This certainly struck a chord within me. If you like indie, drama and are a sucker for romance and feelgood don't miss out on this one. Luuuuved it!

Refuge is Jessica Goldberg's debut vehicle as a movie director. Since she also wrote the screenplay and a play from which it is derived, this is a signature work for her.

The story seems to develop unevenly, at least on first viewing. Again and again, Goldberg misses opportunities to spike up the emotional reactions of the audience. Where countless other romantic movies catch our attention by buffing the usual into the unusual, Refuge does not.

As a result, it may seem a bit flat to those accustomed to modern TV, cinema and advertising. We come to scenes where a character could demonstrate some great nobility, but a lesser act occurs. This may reduce the adrenaline/endorphin hit we might have received, but it illustrates Goldberg's key point: ordinary people can rise above circumstance and do extraordinary things. Viewers who will adjust themselves to this more natural rhythm may be reminded that no cape and spandex are required to elevate human experience.

Refuge is evocative of the better works of some foreign directors of years gone by. Eisenstein moved us with fixed-camera moving tableaux that revealed simple beauty. Goldberg accomplished the same thing with a dilapidated house, character development and storyline. Julie Delpy's rambling tours of Paris provided her lean framework for the rambling lives of her characters. Goldberg's house framed the simple, stark realities of the characters of Refuge.

Like the words to a great blues song, Refuge brings us down into the barren recesses of existence. The music of the blues gives us a way to rise above, and the storyline and details of Refuge do the same. In scene after scene, we find a neatness and pleasing balance to small items in the house that suggest a transcendence of life's challenges. A shot of a table and a few mismatched chairs encourage us to step into the scene and sit down, confident that we will find warmth and security there. It is not so much that the house itself is a refuge, but that the heart of Amy, the female lead, is creating one for us.

In a scene outside a Doctor's office, Sam, our cigarette-smoking leading man idly tries to repair a dented piece of siding. In another, he grabs up a couple of branches that have fallen in the yard. With these simple gestures, we see our tendency to improve what is around us. All four of the key characters are deeply flawed and irritating at times. Yet as the story progresses, we become attached to them. Anyone wishing to rediscover the power of the human spirit, particularly on its feminine side, would do well to seek out this movie.

Loved the leads and wanted to see how their two lonely characters turned out. Could have been grittier. Screenplay seemed underdone at times. Extra star for the laidback soundtrack from (I think) the Milk Carton Kids. (viewed 10/16)