Courtney Howard // Film Critic
A LITTLE PRAYER
Not Yet Rated, 1 hour and 31 minutes
Directed by: Angus MacLachlan
Starring: Jane Levy, Will Pullen, David Strathairn, Celia Weston, Dascha Polanco, Anna Camp, Billie Roy, Ashley Shelton
In picturesque, small town suburbia lies an undercurrent of melancholy, sordid family secrets and unrealized dreams. Yet, blessedly, it’s not nearly as dire as that sounds. With A LITTLE PRAYER, writer-director Angus MacLachlan captures his character’s lives in a compassionate, hopeful way, despite any disappointments they’re dealt. He has a gift for capturing Southern characters without turning them into caricature – a tightrope walk he made appear effortless in previous pictures like JUNEBUG and ABUNDANT ACREAGE AVAILABLE. Once again returning to poignant, deeply-rooted, familiar themes tied to family, the assured filmmaker delivers a story thick with character, grace and humanity.
Tammy (Jane Levy) and David (Will Pullen) are a young, loving married couple living in the cozy guest house behind David’s parents’ home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They’re having a difficult time getting pregnant, and David working long hours and weekends at the family’s small business is adding stress to their efforts. David’s father, Bill (David Strathairn), who owns the company, is even surprised how much time his son is committing to work. So much so, he suspects his perfect, war vet son is having an affair with secretary Narcedalia (Dascha Polancho) and, even worse, might be struggling with more issues than he lets on.
Around this same time, Bill and wife Venida’s (Celia Weston) overly dramatic, loud-mouthed daughter Patti (Anna Camp) shows up, desperate for shelter after leaving her drug-addicted husband to protect their young daughter Hadley (Billie Roy). Patti, a whirlwind of stressful energy, takes her kid and mothering for granted, ignoring the youngster, who’s prone to act out for her mother’s attention. As Bill and Venida worry about their adult childrens’ futures, it’s Bill who faces his biggest crisis: potentially losing his doting daughter-in-law .
MacLachlan astutely establishes and modulates tone, knowing when to lean into the inherent humor of situations and when to ease up on the familial melodramatics, never taking the story into maudlin or manipulative territory. While it strays a bit into twee (Patti’s metal detector is quirk for quirk sake), the majority of it is crafted with a steady hand. Drama is drawn with a tender touch and comedy is gently deployed when necessary. The unseen neighbor singing gospel hymns (a siren song of sorts for Bill and Tammy) proves to be a shrewd symbolic move impacting the film’s aural soundscape. Though the narrative could use some rounding of the edges when it comes to the relationships and motivations, overall the characters are well-fleshed out, richly layered and given resonant stakes.
Performances also earn top marks. Levy rips your heart out, leaving it aching. She’s perfectly calibrated her intimate moments, from the scene in a nurse’s office (where the camera slowly circles her shattered and sobbing character, finishing with her in a different emotional headspace) to the post-museum sequence where she and Strathairn share a heartrending conversation. Strathairn and Weston are pure magic, delivering a masterclass of refined, meaningful poignancy. They beautifully portray late-stage parental anxieties with vulnerability and honesty.
Grade: B+
A LITTLE PRAYER played the Sundance Film Festival. It was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics.
