Ballast

This Sundance favorite involved me in its indirect approach, allowing a situation to make itself clear gradually, through inarticulate gestures rather than explanatory dialogue. What emerges from the desolate landscape of a wintry Mississippi Delta is the story of a teenage boy, whose estranged father has committed suicide. The father’s twin brother tries to kill himself as well, but survives, to take a slow and grudging interest in his nephew, even though he blames the mother for the father’s death. In a sidelong way, forgiveness and family feeling begin to emerge from emotional devastation. Understated yet eloquent, Lance Hammer’s film may look to some like nothing happening, but to me was invested with meaning and feeling, true to the marginal lives it depicts. (2008, dvd) *7* (MC-84)