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Dir. Alan Ball
Rating: 6.6 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Scott Hesel
On the surface, this film presents many themes that appear to exploit the usual teen drama clichés: Isolation that comes as a consequence of being different, sexual confusion, love triangles, and so on. This story, however, succeeds in steering the focus on a simple neighborhood block in a suburb of Houston, where culture clashes unfold in manner that resembles the American ‘melting pot’ on an uncomfortable and disorientating head trip. Jasira (Summer Bishil) is a high-school Lebanese girl sent away by her narcissistic mother (Maria Bello) to live with her tyrannical father at the eve of the first Gulf War in 1991. Peter Macdissi spins Jasira’s father into an almost comical mixture of abusive disciplinarian and self-conscious neurotic. Perhaps the best representation of his character occurs in his very first scene, where he first greets Jasira without so much as a degree of warmth, comments that her flight was late, and responds to Jasira’s apology with, “why are you apologizing? It wasn’t your fault." Although Jasira is predictably mocked and ostracized at school for her race, the story thankfully steers away from the classroom and instead focuses on her relationship with Travis Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart, in nicely conflicted performance), a next-door neighbor in the Army Reserves who holds less than enlightened views about Muslims, but nonetheless has his eyes on Jasira. From that point on, the film develops into a perverted love triangle where Jasira shuffles between Vuoso and her only school friend, Thomas (Eugene Jones III), a black classmate who relates to her racial isolation -- all while avoiding her father’s ire. Being that this is Alan Ball we’re talking about here (American Beauty, "Six Feet Under"), this film offers a lot of overblown, shocking developments and exaggerated characters, a few of them ringing false notes, but it at least excels in one area teen dramas usually fail miserably: The characters aren't painted in black and white; just one massive shade of gray.
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