Somewhere in upstate New York teenage Gracie is on the banks of a river where she is rooting out rocks for her collection when she discovers the half naked body of one of the boys from her school. The corpse is Jamie Marks a quiet nerdy boy who had been the butt of other kids jokes and regularly bullied by jocks in the sports locker room. When the news of her discovery gets out, it deeply affects Adam one of the school’s track stars who feels really bad that he had not intervened on Jamie’s behalf at any time.
The death brings Gracie and Adam together … previously strangers to each other ….but through the bond of their concern of how Jamie’s death is being treated by the community, they somehow evolve into becoming boy & girlfriend. This tenuous relationship is tested when Adam discovers that Gracie has been visited by Jamie’s ghost, still naked and bruised. This perks his curiosity and soon the specter is visiting him at his home, turning up in his bedroom closet, and Adam feeling very guilty about Jamie, befriends him and the two become quite close.
As well as dealing with a ghost as his new best friend Adam also has to cope with his mother recently paralysed in a car crash and her perpetually drunk best friend who had caused the accident and who now feels obliged to hang out at their house. There is also his older jerk of a brother who is on his case too.
When life at home suddenly gets too much Adam takes off and hides out at an abandoned farmhouse that Jamie suggests. There they encounter yet another ghost and when Adam mishandles her, it looks likely he could end up condemned to a life amongst all these dead people too.
This second feature from filmmaker Carter Smith is beautifully photographed with an impressive cast, including Noah Silver who, as bespectacled Jamie Marks, looked like a dead ringer for Daniel Radcliffe. But this well-meaning wee film has just a few too many holes in its story line to succeed as well as it should. The relationship between the two boys is uneven and although Jamie obviously develops a very definite crush on Adam, it is never clear if he in return feels anything other than guilt. There is also the issue that whilst it toys with a supernatural theme it falls short of being either a horror movie or a thriller.
Labels: 2014, drama, gay character, ghosts, Sundance, supernatural
