Brothers Matt and Joey come from a difficult family life, one where their father was abusive to them and their mother Carol, and ultimately gave his wife lung cancer from second hand smoke. When they become desperate enough for money to pay their moms medical bills, the boys turn to a darker path, robbery. This choice and decision is made by Joey’s controlling older brother Matt who ends up terrorizing him the rest of the film. When walking home one day Matt forces Joey to sneak into an old ladies home that’s being fumigated in search of money, they end up finding and stealing thousands of dollars just as Matt thought. Suddenly out of nowhere they are spotted by a random security guard who suspects them of stealing and begins to chase them into the woods. While on the chase this guard ends up falling into a twenty foot hole in the ground as the boys make their escape, that night Joey doesn’t sleep easy with the guilt on his conscious knowing that man is still alive down there.
As Joey played by Jack Dylan Grazer cannot stop restlessly thinking about the man in the hole he realizes he must go to check on him and help him out of he can, he is just not like his older demonic asshole of a brother Matt played by Fionn Whitehead. Joey goes back and investigates the hole when he discovers the security guard is a man named David Hamby played by Rainn Wilson. Joey continues to give the man food, water, stuff to keep him warm and eventually a walkie talkie so that they can keep communication with each other. As every time Joey visits he slowly begins to create this father like bond with Hamby. Matt wants the opposite though, and plans to kill Hamby as much as Joey pleas against him to not do that and to then find an alternate way to rescue the man’s life, and still not get in trouble. Hamby promises them that he does not care about what they did and that he just wants to get out and live, but Matt is more concerned about nobody ever finding out, as well as other things.
To fuel his own inflating ego and personality Matt throws a massive party with most of the money he was supposed to use to pay their mothers medical bills, but instead uses it to just have fun and make himself look cool. When Joey finds out he is furious and him and Matt get into a major fight that ends with a major falling out. While all of this is going on Joey and Hamby are really connecting with each other Joey begins to see the man as a friend and someone who can help him with his life. Joey comes home furious from the night after the party and his mom Carol played by Mena Suvari shows him on the news a man that killed his entire family and is on the loose, going by the name of Randy Michael Sadler. When Joey sees the mans face he looks as if he had seen a ghost, the murderer on the loose is actually the fake security guard in the well, David Hamby. Upon finding this out Joey begins to use this information against him and to his advantage. Joey makes a deal that if he would help get him out, that he would punish Matt for being the ridiculous, selfish, manipulative controlling bully of a brother for all the pain he has caused Joey. In this crazy final resolution to the movie you begin wonder how this all happened, but the only way you can find out is by actually watching it.
My Thoughts:
In this major conclusion to the movie tables turn and emotions are brought to the forefront, and without revealing too much information I can say that in a weird way, this lying, manipulating, family murdering man actually brought this family together in a way that only a true father could. It also made me think that maybe this goes as a message and a theme for the whole movie. To come back to this later though I thought overall this movie was pretty good but was a roller coaster of emotions for me. There were plenty of times where I was just so frustrated by the characters decisions, and mostly how Joey should have just helped Hamby earlier, and how Matt could not have been a worse older brother, but in the end it all makes sense and was ultimately for the betterment of the plot.
At times acting and dialogue seemed somewhat out of pace, out of place and bland but overall the twists and turns of the movie seemed to reel me back in as soon as I started to lose interest. I felt that this somewhat monotonous buildup that I was feeling for so long actually paid off to a crazy, intense and fast paced resolution in the end. An ending that left me particularly surprised due to the randomness of it all, and how at times I could totally relate to Rainn Wilson’s character in how he essentially teaches Joey to stand up to his big brother and be a man. While also inspiring their mother to care and try more for her sons, even though she is battling for her life with cancer. Throughout the movie Carol feels that she still has not been there for her boys, even in her condition, and she reveals that they are fatherless because she killed their father because he was destroying her and the rest of her family.
Carol goes on to say how Joey and Matt’s father was an abusive man full of evil and violence running rampant through him, and how Matt saw this character and felt the need to replace him when he was gone. Hamby, or Randy Sadler in a way plays as a father figure in this family that reminds Carol of who she is and why she did what she did, and brings Matt to the breaking point where he finally comes back to reality and realizes that his mom and brother Joey are all that he has in his life. Again this movie strikes at the heart in the end, and makes this emotional collage and roller coaster of feelings you have gone through throughout the film all come to a peaceful and understanding resolution.
Conclusion:
In the end this film leaves you satisfied with the drama and resolution of a thriller, while also testing your moral compass and reinforcing your feelings for friends and family. It was also really refreshing to see two younger actors do so well in complex characters, and great to see Rainn Wilson once again proving that he cannot only play Dwight Schrute but is truly the complete package as a fantastic actor.
You watch as two brothers in an abusive and complex relationship actually find some peace in an unsuspected way, and how a complete stranger can really make an impact in multiple people’s lives in a way that you must embrace full on.
I would recommend that anyone who wants to watch an emotional psychological thriller, full of twists and turns, they would not be disappointed in this one.
