Lean On Pete (PG.)
Directed by Andrew Haigh.
Starring Charlie Plummer, Travis Fimmel, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny and Steve Zahn. 122 mins.
The point of having pets is, according to conventional wisdom, to give children an early understanding of mortality. Young Charley (Plummer) already has a keen appreciation of loss when, while working as a stable boy for low rent trainer Buscemi, he becomes overly attached to a clapped out nag on its last legs. Jockey Sevigny tries to warn him that Lean On Pete is overdue an appointment at the knacker's yard (or Mexico, as they call it in American English) but he's just too sensitive and lost a soul to deal with it.
After the enormously impressive 45 Years, Haigh makes his American debut with a somber drama about a kid watching his support structures fall away from him. He's kind of coping at the start but in the second half he's clinging on. The film is much like its lead character; it gradually comes adrift. The first half is the kind of low key, low budget US character drama we are all familiar with. After that, an already downbeat drama strikes out into something much bleaker, starker and existential.
There's a lot of acting on display and it is all really top notch stuff. Plummer, the de-eared Getty in All The Money In The World, has something of the River Phoenix about him. He is touching as the withdrawn and quietly desperate Charley, but he isn't the liveliest or most inspiring company to spend two hours with and I'd say that goes for the film as a whole. It looks great, has some startling and surprising moments, feels totally genuine and I wouldn't fault a single aspect of it, but I'd think carefully about choosing to put yourself through it. He's got the horse to lean on for support; who will you have?
Directed by Andrew Haigh.
Starring Charlie Plummer, Travis Fimmel, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny and Steve Zahn. 122 mins.
The point of having pets is, according to conventional wisdom, to give children an early understanding of mortality. Young Charley (Plummer) already has a keen appreciation of loss when, while working as a stable boy for low rent trainer Buscemi, he becomes overly attached to a clapped out nag on its last legs. Jockey Sevigny tries to warn him that Lean On Pete is overdue an appointment at the knacker's yard (or Mexico, as they call it in American English) but he's just too sensitive and lost a soul to deal with it.
After the enormously impressive 45 Years, Haigh makes his American debut with a somber drama about a kid watching his support structures fall away from him. He's kind of coping at the start but in the second half he's clinging on. The film is much like its lead character; it gradually comes adrift. The first half is the kind of low key, low budget US character drama we are all familiar with. After that, an already downbeat drama strikes out into something much bleaker, starker and existential.
There's a lot of acting on display and it is all really top notch stuff. Plummer, the de-eared Getty in All The Money In The World, has something of the River Phoenix about him. He is touching as the withdrawn and quietly desperate Charley, but he isn't the liveliest or most inspiring company to spend two hours with and I'd say that goes for the film as a whole. It looks great, has some startling and surprising moments, feels totally genuine and I wouldn't fault a single aspect of it, but I'd think carefully about choosing to put yourself through it. He's got the horse to lean on for support; who will you have?
