In James Sweeney's second feature, which also stars Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi and Chris Perfetti, two young men at a grief support group form an unlikely friendship.
It’s here that Roman meets Dennis , a lanky graphic designer and hopeless romantic. The two bond as only grieving people can, relying on each other, at first for small errands and then for emotional support. Roman mourns the ways he will never get to know Rocky, who was gay, extroverted and well-travelled, and recalls how they rarely talked about anything before he died.
Sweeney stages these early scenes with the intimate awkwardness and humor of a tender buddy comedy. A blunt cut shifts the mood. The opening credits roll and the perspective changes from Roman to Dennis. Portland’s somber grayness is alleviated by sharp neons . It turns out Dennis knew Rocky before he died: We see the two spend a glowing evening together, having sex and exchanging secrets.
This and other revelations sour Roman and Dennis’ endearing bond and debunk the spontaneity of the pair’s first encounter. As Sweeney gives us more insight into Dennis’ life, the clever twink becomes a more complex character, andmust balance its earnest meditations on grief with the darkness of its heightened stakes. Sweeney’s confident filmmaking eases the bumpier parts of this transition.
Although not himself a twin, Sweeney seems to have deeply considered the special bond between such siblings and deftly combines those observations with his own musings on loneliness. What makesspecial and surprisingly compassionate is how this director handles grieving characters. He tends to Roman, who demonstrates surprising levels of emotional intimacy, and Dennis, whose compulsions slowly start to read more as sad desperation.
In one of the film’s best scenes, Dennis encourages Roman to process his emotions by talking to him as if he were Rocky. The two sit across from each other, and in a moment of obvious but affecting transference, the usually restrained twin lets out a torrent of emotion. How Sweeney stages that scene and how O’Brien navigates his character’s sadness, as it morphs into rage and reverts to sadness again, are nothing short of deeply moving.
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