Sunlight Jr.

This is Laurie Collyer's second outing as a writer and director (her debut was the excellent 'Sherrybaby' with Maggie Gyllenhaal) and it is sad to see that the film, despite some very impressive acting from a small cast, simply doesn't get off the ground.

Set in a rather smarmy location in Florida, Sunlight Jr. is a love story at odds with the times and with the conditions that surround the characters. Melissa (Naomi Watts) works the day shift at a convenience store called Sunlight Jr., managed by a repulsive toad named Edwin (Antoni Corone) and assisted at shift change by the funky Vivian (Adrienne Lovette). Melissa lives in a motel with her paraplegic, wheelchair-confined boyfriend Richie (Matt Dillon) whose only income is a disability check. The couple is in love and Melissa becomes pregnant. In the joy of the discovery Richie asks Melissa to marry him, but Melissa loses her job and they are evicted from the motel, they face difficult choices about life and their relationship. They attempt to live with Melissa's alcoholic mother (Tess Harper) who runs a foster home in her tiny house, but the stress overcomes both Melissa and Richie, and the added stalking from Melissa's previous boyfriend Justin (Norman Reedus) provides further stress. The manner in which the couple works things out provides the rest of the story.

Watts and Dillon offer memorable performances, even given the weak and clichéd script Collyer has written. It is a depressing film buoyed up by the inner resilience Watts and Dillon instill in their characters. We are left with the feeling that with the addition of more substance to the film, this may have actually worked. It does show how excellent actors can save a mediocre movie.

Grady Harp

Certainly not an uplifting movie, but ironically, I found it to be refreshingly real and believable, at least as far as the world that I live in. No special effects, no affluent people, and nothing gratuitous ~ just real life. Good, gritty performances by all the characters. I relate to every single problem Melissa has to deal with, which is rare for me and probably made me biased. I think all rich people should watch this movie to understand what real problems are. This is a genuine portrait of what it's like out here for people who are just trying to get by, day to day. The cycle of poverty is hard to break and I believe this movie reflects the lives of many in our country today.

It's hard to really distinguish the very good indie flicks from the not-so-very-good ones, and that's because not many people see many of them, not many notices, not many reviews out there for others to see and make a judgment as to if they want to watch a certain flick because of reviews (or not). In that case, this film isn't bad, but I may not totally recommend it either. The performances are solid but nothing extraordinary, certainly not acting that would stand as some of the best of the year. Watts has done this certain thing before and better, and she has some iffy moments here. Matt Dillon may actually be stronger and more consistent, but yeah, not much stretch as an actor the role called for. It's not really "bad" though.

Sometimes a movie is just to darn glum for its own good, an example that could be tailor made for Sherrybaby director Laurie Collyer's raw and in the end mediocre 2013 effort Sunlight Jr. The movie is a fine showcase for the well known talents of Naomi Watts and the arguable lesser recognized talents of Matt Dillon and also a warning bell that Norman Reedus needs to find himself a new agent faster than he can say "typecast".

The story of Sunlight Jr. is really bare bones stuff with Collyer seemingly more worried about what depressing thing will happen to these people next rather than creating something that really affects the viewer. Many scenarios in the picture could hit home whether it be substance abuse, relationships, domestic violence or a raft of other tough issues but the film doesn't seem to know what it's saying and the arc struggles for it. We don't really get why a kind person like Melissa loves an obvious drunk like Richie or why she would care for a redneck drug dealing fiend in the form of Justin and it makes her decisions through the journey harder to latch onto which is a shame as Watts again delivers here.

Creating a fine name for herself over many years now Watts must of taken a significant pay cut to appear in such a picture as this and it's commendable that she would tackle a smaller scale picture that would only seem to exist to win awards for it's actors. Melissa is a fine piece of acting by Watts that is somewhat matched by Dillon while poor old Reedus must be wondering if he will ever get a non Daryl role now. Justin is such an overblown and overplayed part by Reedus that the films believability suffers for it and it's a shame he was allowed to go so OTT, same could also be said for the films atrocious guitar tinged soundtrack.

Without another fine turn from Watts this film would of been a real lost cause but thanks to her it remains watchable but highly forgettable. If a film wants to be glum it needs to overcome this with high quality elements and everything else here around Watts just isn't up to scratch leaving the viewer with not much to care for and not much reason to suggest to anyone that this trip into sorrow is worth enduring.

2 packs of donuts out of 5

Sunlight Jr. paints a gritty, depressing reality that is unfortunately possessed by many Americans today. Many Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, have little life-savings, plan for the week, not for the future, and have financial debt that cripples them. With the impact of the 2007-08 financial crisis in America still showing its ugly effects, it's stunning that only a handful of films about the decline in American prosperity have be detailed in films.

Every so often, a film like Sunlight Jr. comes along, a film with honesty, realism, and an emotional core that not only caters to a relevant issue but provides people with the thought that they're not alone in their struggles. This is obviously no solution to the problem, but it's almost comforting to note that someone share your struggles and have experienced the hardships you're going through. Sunlight Jr. is almost a film that allows you to lean on it, and as a familiar song goes, we all need someone - or something - like that.

The film focuses on Ritchie and Melissa (Matt Dillon and Naomi Watts, respectively), a Florida couple burdened by financial hardships. She is the breadwinner of the two, working at a convenient store for long hours with a disrespectful pervert of a boss. He worked as a carpenter before an injury confined him to a wheelchair and a disability check. Now, money is a rarity because once Melissa gets her paycheck, it is devoted to bills and very little luxuries.

Simultaneously wonderful and heartbreaking news comes through when Melissa discovers she's pregnant. They are thrilled, but worried all the more. Melissa must now work the graveyard shift at the store, a dangerous job for a young, attractive woman. Ritchie must live with the stress that he can't provide for the family due to his injury, all the while Melissa's obnoxious ex-boyfriend Justin (Norman Reedus) keeps coming back on the scene. He harasses her at her job, turns up to insult Ritchie, and makes her feel guilty for leaving him.

A film like this needs to get two aspects down to a tee and it's safe to say Sunlight Jr. does. The aspects are capable acting and writing along with an emphasis on realism through dialog and structure. Dillon and Watts accentuate true chemistry as a couple, most prominently when it comes to the way they discuss financial matters with one another. It also helps that both allow themselves to sink into the characters of two people living a financially-strapped life in America, whether it's Watts' Melissa coming into work late with messy hair and a wrinkled uniform or Ritchie slugging down Bud Light at the local tavern or with dinner, relieving the physical pain of his injury and the mental pain of his presumed worthlessness.

On the topic of the realistic dialog, writer-director Laurie Collyer never attempts to make the problems of Ritchie and Melissa overreaching or even transcend the line of unbelievable. The film is grounded in reality; there are no easy answers, no simple solutions, and no happy ending. The commentary the film subtly sneaks in is that the working class sector of America is a miserable sector to be in. Often there feels as if there is no hope, and that the only accomplishment from working long hours, aside from money which quickly disappears, is tiredness.

I've always had respect for people working lengthy hours at a retail job. Now, being a part of that demographic, I can't fathom doing this work for years on end, eventually making it my only source for cash. The scariest part about being young and working retail (or even being older in some cases) is that you're always replaceable. Somebody else can learn how to push buttons on a cash register, stock goods on a shelf, bag groceries, work a store's computer system, help a customer with a question, mop up at night, and lock up. Many retail jobs do not possess skills that people can't learn without school; all can be taught in a day-long orientation session and mastered in the matter of weeks.

This is the kind of workplace honesty Sunlight Jr. infuses in its writing. It's a difficult subject but Collyer doesn't sugarcoat it. Her depiction of the material at hand possibly hints she, herself, or her parents were actively part of the working class drudgery at one point in her life, seeing as she clearly knows the harsh realities of the situation her characters find themselves in.

One of the best films to detail with the impact of the crisis is The Company Men, centering around Ben Affleck, a man victim to corporate downsizing who is now questioning his value as a male when he suddenly can't afford all the luxuries he felt made him one. Sunlight Jr. makes itself more accessible to people in the position of not having much to start out with and then working their way to having more demands in their life, whereas The Company Man was more of an analysis of the male in general along with going from everything to significantly less. Sunlight Jr. is among one of the best dramas of the year, mainly because it not only takes itself seriously but knows the realities of its characters' situations, which is half the battle with films along this line.

Starring: Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon, and Norman Reedus. Directed by: Laurie Collyer.