Writer/director Michael J. Weithorn's dramedy "A Little Help" took home Best Feature Film during this year's Phoenix Film Festival. And it is an honor that is much deserved.
It is a relatively unpolished cinematic effort that suffers in the end as a result of creating too many complications to properly tie up in less than 2 hours but it is also incredibly charming and emotionally resonant. Add on the fact that "A Little Help" features an outstanding performance by "The Office's" Jenna Fischer and it is pretty hard to resist.
Fischer plays a dental hygienist named Laura who suspects her husband Bob (Chris O'Donnell) of having an affair. However, Laura knows that she is far from blameless herself, having let herself go by throwing back more and more beers each night and becoming emotionally - and sexually - distant.
But when Bob unexpectedly passes away, Laura gets entangled in a series of bizarre lies, one of which is instigated by her 12-year-old son Dennis (Daniel Yelsky), who realizes that it would be a lot "cooler" to have a father who died as a hero in the Sept. 11 tragedy. With her life spinning out of control, Laura seeks emotional refuge in her sister's husband (Rob Benedict).
As already said, Weithorn piles on the lies and other complexities until there is no possible way that this story can have a satisfying ending. And that is exactly what happens, leaving the audience smitten with a pleasant journey but feeling a bit cheated by a largely open-ended conclusion.
Then again, that kind of thing is not exactly uncommon when it comes to independent cinema like "A Little Help" and the demographic that best appreciates the genre tends to embrace endings such as these more than reject them. Having said that, and especially given the rest of the motion picture's strong attributes, Weithorn gets extremely high marks here.
"A Little Help" may still be a bit too obscure to be acquired by a well-known distributor but it will inevitably be picked up by someone and released in some form or fashion. And it is definitely one worth seeking out.
The 11th Annual Phoenix Film Festival takes place March 31-April 7 at Harkins Scottsdale 101, 7000 E. Mayo Blvd. Tickets, which range in price from $10 for a single screening to $250 for a VIP package, are currently available on the Phoenix Film Festival Web site and will be also sold throughout the event at the Phoenix Film Festival Welcome Center next to Harkins Scottsdale 101.
Listen to Joseph J. Airdo's “Movie Maverick” segment every Friday morning during “The Daily Blender with Jeffry O'Brien,” 6-9 a.m. weekdays on NBC 1260 AM and 96.1 FM.
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