Wake

The release of this movie was a source of great anticipation for me. For one reason or another I wouldn't make any of the screening for Wake over the last year, so for me by the time I saw Wake I walked out thinking that the phrase "Good Things Come to Those Who Wait" to be very true.

As I think most people would agree, (at least those that go to a movie to actually WATCH the film) Wake is a haunting film to say the least. If you are tired of the mindless, the fluff, the unsubstantial flick that Hollywood tends force feed us, then give this brilliant indy film your $10 bucks. Wake is just extraordinary. Everything from the depth of the storyline, to the interactions between the 4 brothers, to the intimate setting and the inviting yet foretelling music, Wake offers a true movie experience. You get sucked in and taken to places in your own mind that maybe you didn't want to go. But isn't that what movies are meant to do.

Enlighten, entertain, engage you... Well Wake does all of that. But above and beyond all else it was the acting and the depth of the story that got me back into the theater a second time. I knew there was something I missed the first time around and just needed to make sure that I got it all.

The acting is just magic. Gale Harold's acting talent was no great surprise. His talent, his dedication, his willingness to take on the dark, the doomed, the distraught character of Kyle goes along with what I have long believed about Gale Harold... He takes risks in the hopes of growing professionally and perhaps personally as well. Well I hope this role did that for him, because it shows in his performance. For the sake of not getting to flowery ... Gale Harold was magical as Kyle. And for that we all owe a ton of gratitude to one Susie Landau Finch and one Henry LeRoy Finch for convincing Mr. Harold to try his hand at acting and for creating the opportunity to play Kyle ... respectively. I was not familiar with Blake Gibbons until last Friday, but now I wonder why. He is a phenomenal actor who nailed the role of Roy. What I found most remarkable was his ability to go inside himself, deeply enough to bring about this performance. Roy is a character that can be a self-centered prick on one hand, yet clearly loving and caring on another. It is almost as if he battles between the two simultaneously in each scene.

There isn't enough to be said for Henry LeRoy Finch. Its simple really, if it wasn't for his brilliance, dedication, guts and obvious talent, Wake would not be.

A very dark, haunting movie but excellent acting, especially by Gale Harold and Blake Gibbons. The four brothers in this dysfunctional family collide by circumstance and the story's spiral downward flow is brilliantly brought about by the superb acting. Lavish sets and locations are not necessary and not missed as the whole pivotal story centres around the childhood home of Jack, Kyle, Sebastian and Raymond. The story is told by the older Sebastian, as portrayed by Martin Landau. A must-see for Gale Harold fans. My mind definitely didn't wander off throughout the whole movie. The range of emotions portrayed is riveting and the actors must have gone home drained. Excellent music score and directing.

In a dilapidated old farmhouse in Maine an elderly lady lies dying while her solicitous son looks on. He is soon joined by his three brothers and a dark tale of violence and perversion ensues! The house reeks of decay and death and so do the boys as they squabble over missing money, ancient crimes, long hidden secrets. The tensions among them are utterly believable even as every attempt to reach some resolution just unearths another mystery. The viewers' loyalty shifts from one brother to another as each in turn progresses from sympathetic to monstrous; from victim to predator.

The cast is universally excellent and the script and direction would do David Lynch proud! The story is rich enough to reward multiple viewings and is a perfect example of why we need independent productions like this so desperately; it actually makes you think all the way through!

Four actors who look nothing like brothers get together to do some bad acting while pretending to be brothers and after a night of pills, booze, gunplay and strippers someone ends up dead.

I'm all for keeping the audience guessing but there is nothing that these people say to each other that is straightforward, everything is alluded to and it gets old quick. That being said, you don't need to be a genius to figure out what's going on here, that is, assuming that you care.

Ex-con bro and blonde-sleaze bro are both so annoying that I was hoping the booze and pills would promptly render them null and void. Even the talented and yummy Gale Harold as crazy bro can't salvage this material -though he does do a fetching drunken strip tease and he can puke and pass out with the best of 'em. The other bro, well, his name was Sebastian and that's about all I remember.

The house looks like a studio set built too small for the actors, either that or the only thing the actors/brothers have in common is that they are tall.

In keeping with tradition started with my Particles of Truth review I'd like to add that Gale Harold looks better in a lacy housedress than any man has a right to.

The reason I went to see Wake was because of Gale Harold, who gives a superbly credible performance here as Kyle, one of the four Riven brothers who reunite for one long night of insane plotting and torturous reminiscing, culminating in disaster (as these nights always do). What sets this film apart from other dysfunctional family reunion rehashes is how realistic it feels -- you genuinely get the sense that these four wrecks actually share history, which is very hard to depict - most writers wind up over-stating the facts to let the audience in on it, but first-time screenwriter Henry LeRoy Finch manages to convey their shared anguish without doing this -- he tells us just enough, relying on mood and the actions of the characters to fill in the rest.