Blue Car

Others might consider this a slight film, in that everything seems to happen inside the characters' heads and there isn't a "large" plot or even a great deal of action. Kinda like Pieces of April and films like that. But what the film ends up saying, or actually shouting out loud, is worth the rental. It may be that I was so moved by the film because it's about a girl in high school, and hey, I've been there before. In her case, though, her family has been torn apart. Her sister won't eat and her mother is too busy to take care of them, so she takes out her frustrations in poetry. Her English teacher sees her talent and encourages her to enter a poetry contest. This all sounds benign, but feelings run very close to the surface, and those erupt during the course of the film. The under-rated David Strathairn plays the teacher and the perfectly cast Agnes Bruckner plays the girl. Strathairn is a veteran of John Sayles films, so he's familiar with subtle acting. He helps create an atmosphere in which although you know what's going to happen, and you can see it coming a mile away, it doesn't make it less abhorrent when it does. When Bruckner finally reads her poetry at the contest, you can't help but be moved by this lost child who attempts to hold her life together while everyone in her life is failing her, and not only holds her head above water but triumphs. Every young girl should watch this film (although I imagine many parents might be wary of that advice), if only because it's a wonderful example of overcoming adversity.

year: 2002
length: 96 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290145/combined