The Delta

I was into the movie as I watched it, all the while wondering where it was going. When it ended, I thought I had skipped about 30 minutes ahead, because it just seemed unfinished.

I thought the lead actor, Shayne Gray, was excellent in the part. I thought he was so natural and acted without any bit of effort. His responses, his actions, his emotions, all were very natural. I was sorry to see that this was the only film he's been in. I would very much liked to have seen him in other films.

This film was interesting, but after seeing it through to the end, there was no point to it, I'm sorry to say. I wanted to know more about where each character was going to go, but since the film is 11 years old now, there's no way that's going to happen. Worth seeing, but just be prepared that it's going to end just as it gets interesting.

The handsome "Lincoln" (Shayne Gray) has a decent life, plenty of money and a girlfriend "Monica" (Rachel Zan Huss) but he also has a secret. When she declines to put out one evening, he heads to a cruising area of Memphis where he initially encounters a daddy figure before meeting "Minh". He's a Vietnamese man who is almost the antithesis of "Lincoln". His mother quite recently arrived in the USA, his father was an American soldier - they split up and he's now living with some fellow Vietnamese. They two men chat but "Minh" isn't so keen to go straight for the sex; he wants to get to know his new friend a little. To that end, they take his father's boat and a different kind of cruise on the delta; have a beer and set off some fireworks. It's that latter activity that annoys the police and sends "Minh" feeing into the forest. Has he something to hide? Well the tail end of the film enlightens us a little to the true nature of this man. I did like the concept here, but I'm afraid the acting is pretty nondescript and for a film that relies heavily on conversation, the audio mix makes much of the dialogue inaudible and that proves quite irritating after a while. I think it might have made for a better short feature. Condensing it's more potent aspects into an hour or so might have given it more punch, but as it is - it's too slow and thinly strung out.

This movie provides a sleepy, dreamlike experience. The director shows you many places, relationships, and conflicts. He sets moods, but doesn't judge his characters. Refreshing enough. It's up to you as the viewer to determine how you feel about the people and their conflicts. And it's up to the viewer to decide how things end up because everything is not explained. There was a lot of heart in this film. Some of these reviews seem to miss that. Watch this on an overcast Sunday afternoon and fall in love with Shayne Gray and The Delta.

If you have time, watch it again with the Director's commentary. The director, Ira Sachs, shares a lot about himself and his experience making this film. He is very honest about what he was trying to achieve, the scenes with which he was pleased, and those with which he wasn't. I would like to see more of Ira Sachs's work.

Thinks it's clever, but it's not. Long, dull teenage scenes from parties made me sleep for a brief minute or two. Lincoln's struggles with his sexuality as a gay or straight man are well handled, but Minh (African-American and Vietnamese) is so clearly alienated from society that his empathy is sickening. The end of the film is fun to talk about, but this film is pretentious.

The temptation is to write about obvious good intentions. Shayne Gray is just cute and this seems be the basic virtue offered to his character .

Thang Chan performance is the basic good point of film, presenting, sure, with a good fist of ciches, the reaistic image of allianation.

The probem, maybe the first part, we intentioned , ooking for suggest the struggle of Lincoln with his sexuality but, unfortunately, too ong and pretty boring.

In short, just a familiar indie recipe, not different by another, proposing faces of loneliness and reminding social traumas in fair manner.

The end is so predictable than just works as nice confirmation of what you suppose.

So, a nice film . Sure, for a precise target.