Sequoia

I came across this independent movie on Amazon streaming. Tired of watching post-election news I watched this instead.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well made and well acted it is for a movie made with crew and cast with hardly any movie-making credentials. The core story centers on a 20-something girl who, as the movie begins, receives an unfavorable diagnosis. Confiding only in her teen sister she decides to travel to Sequoia National Park and to a location called Hanging Rock and presumably end it all.

Traveling by bus she meets a 20-something man who is headed to a volunteer job to build things for the less advantaged. They connect to some extent and he eventually gives her a ride in the rental car he is picking up.

Meanwhile we witness some really strange family dynamics back home between sister, dad, estranged wife, and wife's new boyfriend. It actually all works pretty well and isn't trite at all.

In a really good movie the whole first 80% to 90% of running time sets things up for the ending, but the way it is all tied up into a satisfying ending is always the payoff. The filmmaker is a juggler, with lots of balls in the air, and has to catch them all in a satisfying manner. Here the payoff is just mediocre, perhaps all the filmmakers are saying is "change what you can and try to know the difference", borrowing from AA. But to me the ending doesn't do justice to everything that was set up in that first 80% to 90% of the movie. I wanted more.

Still I found it suitably interesting and entertaining for a difficult subject.

A graphic portrayal of a real tumor beneath her tongue , an ostogenic sarcoma we are told, is the most original scene in the movie.

Young Alyson Michalka has decided to take her own life, but she's decided on a unique way to do it. She's taken a slow acting poison, takes several hours to kick in. Meantime she's decided that where she wants to end her life is among the oldest living things on planet earth, the giant redwood trees in Sequoia National Park in northern California.

But a funny thing happens along the way, she meets Dustin Milligan whom she falls for. The problem is will she have enough time to have a real romance. And it's not completely up to her.

Of course her dysfunctional family is worried which includes sister Sophia Bairley, separated parents Joey Lauren Adams and Todd Lowe, and Adams's new boyfriend Sean Hood. These four have some interesting dialog in a car while they are on a frantic search for Michalka.

Sequoia is a nice no frills story with nice location scenery in Sequoia National Park. There's also a key scene with Michalka and Lou Diamond Phillips in a cameo role as a terminally ill AIDS patient who sees life a bit differently than Michalka.

You'll like the park and the players.

Was a good emotional movie just should have had some better writers some of the exchanges between actors was a little confusing but the over all movie was great Some of the scenes seem to be dead weight and should have been cut out and scenes that may have been cut should have been tried before the movie was placed out in the theaters.now the actors did a great job with what was given them.it may have been the director who should have paid closer attention to the scenes and how they were acted out but over all it was a good movie and did have some emotional scenes that could have been played out a little bit better.I will recommend this movie to other because it keep me captivated all the way to the end