Few things bothered me with this otherwise good film...
Naturally, this will contain SPOILERS
First off, I want to say that I enjoyed the film overall and felt that the acting and production were all of a very high standard. Will Patton, Devon Gearhart and Colin Ford all performed excellently, I already knew about Devon (he's the reason I watched the film) but was pleasantly surprised that there was another stellar young actor around in Colin Ford.
The things that bugged me were...
1) Length of the film - I left film knowing i never fully understood the whole story because it was too jumpy and I felt that it was too short. It seemed like too much of the story was told in those few second long montage clips with music over the top. An hour and a half is not long enough to fully explore the main characters of the story AND their families. Still didn't fully understand background with Philip's parents. What do they work as? Same with Jackson's parents, flashback scene with Jackson and his mother maybe? We don't know her so we don't feel sorry for her. Really we don't get told much about adult Philip at all. I don't want to go on too much but you can see my point, the film wasn't overly long so it could have been 'bulked' out a bit more.
2)Jackson's death - I mean come on I know he was small and young but to be killed by a camera like that? He seemed like he had a bit of fight in him but he never seemed to WANT to free himself from the camera, the strap was loosely round his neck not even double looped. Colin probably had to fight to keep it round his neck while filming that scene! Despite being the smaller of the pair he seemed like the tougher one so his drowning scene bothered me.
3) Philip's reaction and rescue attempt - He took too long to jump in and he did not try anywhere near hard enough to save his friend. I mean his BEST friend. 2 dives and give up? I would have been there all afternoon trying to save him, not sitting there crying. I would have retrieved his body THEN sat there crying. I know he is a kid but again they are BEST friends. That annoyed me.
4) No one in the small town seemed to care about missing/dead child - We see no panic or sorrow from the townspeople at Jackson's death apart from his dad and Philip. No further mention of death aswell.
5) What happened to General - What was real reason behind Brock and his friends attack on him, did he recover?
6) Jackson's mother's death - Did no one put 2 and 2 together about dad's failing sight and crash? I mean even in that town a fatal road incident would lead to an investigation. No one believe General's story about other car serving in front of him? Why are we not told? He is a respected? (we are not told) war veteran after all
7) What ever happened to Eli Cottonmouth? - Did he vanish? I know the death of Jackson and confession of the pastor would have caused a stir but we see or hear no mention of him ever again the townspeople just let him leave no questions asked, after all that had happened? Does Philip blame Eli for his friend's death? I would assume so but we never get told.
8) Are there no other kids in this town? - I saw one fat kid in a church scene but there were no other kids.
9) The pastor's crying scene was almost laughable - I mean Colin's emotional scenes were a little wooden but he was a kid and his cuteness could pull the rest off but the guy who played the pastor was an adult professional actor and he was really bad when he was breaking down and 'crying'.
10) What actually happened to the town for it to be deserted and in ruin? - Again my speculation is that the people left because either they thought it was cursed or because it was not the paradise they once thought it was. Both fairly weak reasons for a town of happy and settled people to just up and leave, but we weren't actually given a reason.
I want to give the film a high rating because it was a good film if I ignore the niggles and the kids's performances brought back longful memories of my own childhood and I enjoyed the charisma of Eli Cottonmouth as well as the performance of adult Philip, but it is hard too. Maybe I am being too harsh on an independent film but it got so much right, why not the rest.
I believe what ever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger The Joker