Boys of Summerville (2008) - By Duane L. Martin

Film Reviews: Boys of Summerville (2008) - By Duane L. Martin
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 @ 15:28:44 Mountain Standard Time by Duane

It's not something we think about often, but growing up in the shadow of a parent who's highly looked up to or a hero to a lot of people can be really hard on a kid. That's what happened to Peter Davis (Casey Payne). His father was the hero of the small southern town of Summerville and was their star softball player and coach. As he grew up, Peter felt neglected and never understood why his father was so idolized by everyone.

Now an adult, Peter's father has died, and Peter, who has now moved up north and become a big city businessman, has to come home to settle up his father's estate and sell the house. This brings back a lot of bad feelings for Peter, but as he re-kindles his old relationships and finds himself falling for a new girl in town, he still can't seem to shake the ill feelings towards his father. It's only as the movie progresses that he finally comes to realize why his father meant so much to the town and why he felt so neglected. It was because the whole town thought of his father as a father figure. His father was constantly helping people and giving them someone to look up to and idolize. It was never about him being a great softball player and coach. It was about who his father was to the people of that town. Coming to this realization finally frees Peter of his ill feelings towards his father and the people of the town that he re-connects with lead him down a path of emotional healing and leave him torn between his life up north and the life he could have by coming home again.

Boys of Summerville is an enjoyable "coming home" type of a film. The cast is filled with likable small town folks including Peter's friend Rocky (Wesley Murphy) who is basically the ideal stereotype of southern white trash, yet despite how different they are, fits in perfectly as Peter's friend, sidekick and instigator. Sam (Allison Varnes) is the cute new lady mechanic in town who tows Peter's rental car when it breaks down. After a rocky start, the two develop a special relationship, and she ultimately helps Peter to deal with his feelings about his father. Another performance worth noting is that of Amy Eakins-Casterline, who plays Michelle, a really sweet, wheelchair bound girl that Rocky meets in a bar and ultimately falls in love with, despite his being put off by the fact that she's handicapped. The whole relationship between her and Rocky is really sweet, and watching it develop is not only entertaining, but it makes you feel good.

While the story was solid and the film had a great cast, there were however a couple of problems I had with it. First, I just wasn't feeling Casey Payne's performance as Peter. Something about it always felt strained and somewhat awkward for me. I felt like I was watching someone playing someone else, rather than watching an actual, believable character.

The other problem I had wasn't really with his performance, but rather with how the character was written, and that is, he's basically introduced at the beginning of the film as being kind of a douche bag when he breaks up with a girl in a restaurant. This right off the bat kind of creates a bad feeling toward a character we're supposed to feel for, which I personally think was a bit of a mistake. He's also kind of a douche at various other times, yet he can also be a good guy. There seems to be a bit of a confusion as to what his character is supposed to be. I think his character would have played out better if he had just been a good guy with a lot of emotional baggage about his father that needed to be resolved. As it plays out, you're not really sure how to feel about the character, though as the movie progresses and he re-discovers his roots in the town, this aspect of the character pretty much goes away and he becomes more the way I wish he had been throughout the story. Now mind you, this is all subjective to the viewer, but that's just my opinion on the character.

Technically this film was extremely well made. There are certain levels of skill that exist in independent film making. Everything from really amateurish to highly polished and professional. The great thing about independent film is that throughout the range of quality, there are great films to be found. This particular film I would put somewhere toward the upper end of quality. There's some great camera work, the editing is really well done, it's well paced and the sound is clear with the dialogue clearly understandable. You can tell from watching it that a lot of hard work went into making this film, and in the end, despite my problems with the main character, this ended up being a really good film. The Rocky character provided some great comic relief to the heavier emotional side, and there was just a really good balance between humor, drama and the development of romantic relationships that made this, and I hate to use the tern, but it made it a feel good film, and one definitely worth checking out.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's website at http://summervillemovie.com.