Secrets always come out eventually - and when they do they often cause chaos and grief. If there's a moral to this story, that would probably be it. Arielle, played by a young actress named Sophia Lauchlin Hirt, is turning 16. Her mother left when she was 6 and she's been raised and home schooled in an isolated and lonely environment by her single father. Now, her only birthday wish is to see her mother. To her surprise, her mother shows up - and the result is the unbinding of family secrets.
The problem is that none of the secrets were really that earth-shattering for the most part, and the first hour or so of the movie moves along at a rather slow pace. You see the results of a broken family but not really much else. The movie does pick up in the last half hour, and there's a definite ratcheting up of the tension as it heads to its conclusion, but I'm even a bit reluctant to use the word "climax." I didn't think there was anything dramatic or shocking enough in the ending to justify the use of that word, and the ending really didn't give me any closure - it actually left me with questions as to what was actually happening in the movie.
The story is compelling enough that you watch it through to the end, even if it is a bit of a slow build up. Too many of the characters are left undeveloped, and Hirt herself, as the primary star, was all right but she didn't overwhelm me with her performance. It's basically an OK movie that you won't regret watching but that also isn't completely satisfying. (5/10)
