Little Accidents

Every year, worldwide, missing teenagers dissapear from their family homes, or outside on the streets. Some return safely, some are never found, while some are found dead. Not knowing what happened to your child, must be every parents worst nightmare. Even worse to find out your child is found dead. I can never imagine how this would feel like, until the day i have my own child. When you read almost every week that a child or teenager is missing, in different countries, you realise that this will never end. All you can do is hope that all of them will return safely to their homes, even if the chances are not very big. There are of course many reasons why some teenagers go missing. It could be that they are sick and tired of their parents, they want to discover the world on their own, unfortunately there are a lot of cases where a crime took place. Thankfully a lot of people are willing to help families, searching for the missing child, and also give information to the police, so every important detail can make a big difference. There are plenty of motion pictures that take on the subject of missing children. Many of you probably have seen the amazing film Prisoners, or perhaps you might have read my review on Devil´s Knot. Even if i did not find Devil´s Knot to be very good, i still find the true story of the murdered young boys very disturbing. It seemed that police have arrested the wrong child killers, and 3 young men spend so many years in prison for something they did not do. There is still a lot of controversy around this case, and i have a feeling there will be for a very long time. Little Accidents is a new film, that is said to bring on the subject of a missing young boy, in a small american town. This is not based on a true story, from what i know, but that does not really matter. After some positive reviews on Film Festivals worldwide, i decided to take a look at Small Accidents, to see if i might be surprised. Is this independent film exactly what we needed right now after some bad releases from major studios, or is this release nothing out of the ordinary to remember ?

A coal mine accident take out 10 lives in an american small town. Only one man survives, Amos Jenkins ( Boyd Holbrook ), as he tries to deal with the pain of what happened, and knowing he lost all his work friends. Each day he wakes up, not knowing what to do, as he tries to accept he have to move on with his life. Owen ( Jacob Lowland ) and his little brother James ( Beau Bright ) head into the woods, to see tough boy Justin ( Grant Bauman ) and his friend playing with fireworks, and drinking beer. Owen stole 2 beers to impress the boys, but they don´t care about him and his brother. At some point, Owen can not shut up and accuse Justin´s father Bill Doyle ( Josh Lucas ) for the mine accident. They begin to fight, and it all ends with Justin hit his head in a rock. Justin is dead, and Owen tries to keep this a secret, telling his brother not to say a word. Justin´s mother Diane Doyle ( Elizabeth Banks ), can´t sleep, and tries to find a meaning to go on with life, not knowing where her son is. Her relationship with Bill is fading away, as she is getting closer to Amos, after they meet at Bible meetings. When the truth is about to come out what happened to Justin, and the truth of the mine accident, this town will never be the same again.
 
American small towns are having a hard time to survive these days. Little Accidents is a great example of that, when you have a mine, that most of the people work at, and a tragedy happens that shut it all down, until the investigation is done. The story of the missing boy that the film focus on, does not mean that the plot is too simple. We also get to see the pain of the town citizens, who try and handle the grief of losing their loved ones who died in the mines. With 2 such devastating tragedies, it is not hard too understand everyone is affected in many ways. Little Accidents do not break any new grounds, but the stories that are combined together makes a big effort to keep us interested. On one side you know what happened to the boy, knowing that it was an accident. On the other side you understand the pain of the society, who are angry that their rich mine boss. He is living a luxary life, while poor people are killed and don´t get much at all for this tragedy. Society today world wide is very split. We have the rich people, the people who can afford to live but not over their budget, and we have the poor people. I am somewhere between, but for me money is not the most important thing in life. You have to be confident about yourself, your friends and your family. Who owns the luxary house or a sports car does not matter at all. While watching Little Accidents, you realise how important it is to have loved ones around you in hard times. Director Sarah Colangelo, have only directed short films in the past. Actually her short film from 2010, have the same name as this film, Little Accidents. The difference is that the stories are different from each other. Little Accidents is her first full feature film, and with a cast of Elizabeth Banks, Chloe Sevigny, among others, shows that she is off for a good start. I find myself intrigued about this small town, and the people. I would say that The Place Beyond The Pines is a much more powerful dramatic film, if you want to see fantastic performances. Still, i think director Sarah Colangelo manage to put the pieces together is a effective way. The acting may not be really good, in all characters. One of those who do deliver a good performance is Boyd Holbrook, being the survivor Amos from the mine accident. Nice to see Elizabeth Banks do a different character , as the mother of the lost child. This may not be her best performance so far, but i still feel that she manage to deliver. James Defrost Parker should be mentioned also, he feels very natural as the father of Amos. Little Accidents is an independent film, with a lot of emotional pain. How do we handle grief when something happens that was not expected ? I would have wanted an ever deeper view into these emotions, we simply touch the surface here. This is still good enough to recommend Little Accidents, a small film that will leave you thinking, what matters most in our lives.

Rating: DDD