Directed by Ian McCrudden, The Things We Carry tells the story of two sisters reuniting after the death of their drug-addict mother, Sunny (Alexis Rhee). One sister, Emmie (Alyssa Lobit), has spent the last few years traveling around the world and comes back to Los Angeles to retrieve some of her mother's belongings from Ricky, one of Sunny's friends. Along the way, Emmie encounters a variety of her mother's friends. The other, Eve (Catherine Kresge), has spent the last few years taking care of their mother.
The film is very well done for the following reasons: The script as a whole is fantastic. Taking a simple story of Emmie's journey into her past and keeping it realistic as possible is difficult in this day and age of filmmaking. Based on a true story, screenwriter/actress Alyssa Lobit and her sister, producer Athena Lobit's mother is a fully-recovered drug addict and is alive and well. In the Q&A session after the screening, Alyssa explained in the pre-production different storytelling ideas that were suggested to make the film more mainstream. In particular, Alyssa mentioned that some suggested that there should be a romantic connection with Emmie and Sunny's friend Jeremiah (Johnny Whitworth) to give the film a more traditional love narrative, an idea which they wisely rejected. Another was changing the nationality of the sisters from Korean-American to something else.
What was used instead was Lobit's perspective of how her story would be told. For instance, as opposed to introducing minor characters and giving them a sense of purpose, they were incorporated briefly into the story without closure. "That's what happens in real life," Lobit explains plainly and simply. Another reason being this story takes place within a few days. Since the objective is for Emmie to retrieve her mom's belongings, which is essentially a business trip, the story's drive is that and nothing else until Eve enters the storyline. The third being the intertwining of past and present scenarios, which was easy to follow and well done.
The Things We Carry's second forte is the film's intimacy and transcendence. The opening lines are "Some people say that before you're born, you agree to a spiritual contract. You decide the circumstances of your life and relationships - with your spirit peers." After talking with the sisters after the screening, I learned that the opening monoloque is a reflection of Emmie's experience by the end of the movie. Another intimate moment is a scene between Emmie and Eve at their favorite Korean restaurant, “K. food” as Emmie calls it. Not much dialogue is spoken, but what dialogue they do exchange at the table and sharing their meal allows the audience to see this bond rekindled. This dinner scene is perhaps the best scene in the film; not very important for the storyline but still special.
Like most artistic work, The Things We Carry is not perfect. First being the portrayal of Kim (Ilene Graff), one of Sunny's friends. It is understood she is excited to see Emmie since she “looks just like her picture,” as she states in her first meeting. However, her forced enthusiasm is too much as her role carries on to the film’s climax. Another being the lack of screen time for Leslie (Daniel Zacapa), one of Sunny's friends. Keeping in mind Lobit's comment on the characters coming and going out of Emmie's duration of her stay, Leslie was the hardest to let go since he was the strongest of the supporting characters.
Regardless of these minor flaws, the acting is genuinely a job well done. Lobit naturally delivers Emmie in a way that goes beyond what Hollywood would see as free-spirited. Instead of overloading Emmie with sexuality, she plays it to a bare minimum and filling the void with something much more worthwhile. Emmie’s initial motive is not to make peace with her mother. Instead, she judges her solely on the bad times allowing her to become resentful. We see that this perspective is not true since everyone else around Emmie has the ability to see Sunny in a loving and positive light.
Kresge’s portrayal of Eve, the “good sister,” like Lobit, is subtle and well executed. As opposed to labeling people as Emmie does, Eve’s perspective is more open and optimistic. What strikes my interest in contrasting her relationship with Emmie is their fashion sense. Again, it’s been done before in Hollywood portraying the free-spirited sibling with more sexuality and the conservative counterpart to be ‘nerdy’ with the clothing to match. Yet again, it was spot-on creating the realistic perspective of an idea blown out of proportion in mainstream film.
Like all good films, the mise-en-scene is very important. I will not go into too much detail, but there were some bits worth noting. The first one that comes to mind is the vivid house decorations at Eve and her late mother’s house. There’s a brief flashback of their origination that is quite interesting. Another is a painting Emmie takes notice of at her mother’s. There’s a great connection between her perspective and the painting’s. The third is the absent character, which is reason for Emmie going to back to California. Where’s Ricky? However, does it really matter in the end?
In all, this film was very much enjoyed. As far as availability apart from its screenings at the Atlanta Film Festival last month, the great movie rental stores Videodrome and Movies Worth Seeing do not have this title (yet). As far as the internet movie rental source, Netflix, the best choice is to "Save" it in your queue in order to create availability (link here). Fortunately, Amazon does have the title for sale and may be found here.
For more information: Please visit the film's official website.
Comments