“Time heals all wounds” is an aphorism that’s handed out as a superficially soothing balm for a variety of life’s pain and disappointments. But sometimes there are situations and experiences where the intensity of feeling only increases as the months and years pass by, or festers into resentments. And it’s that territory of unresolved hurt and the lingering complex emotions that writer/director Rachel Lambert explores in her incisive feature-film directorial debut “In The Radiant City.” It’s a drama of modest scope, but one that powerfully traverses the reverberations of a single event and how they’ve irrevocably changed the lives of a single family.
If you were to ask Andrew (Michael Abbott Jr.) why he’s returned home to Medina, Kentucky, he probably wouldn’t be able to tell you. Not quite having worked out all the reasons he’s come back, his arrival is nonetheless like a bomb going off for his sister, Laura (Marin Ireland). Spotting him unobserved in the grocery store where she works, his presence is so unnerving she escapes outside to have a cigarette. Shacking up in a motel, Andrew is working up the courage to confront the past he’s come to face, while Laura is sent into a frenzy by his appearance: 20 years ago he testified against their brother Michael in his trial for a horrific crime. Laura has never forgiven Andrew for turning against his own, and whatever his intentions for being in Medina, she wants him nowhere near the upcoming legal proceedings that could see Michael paroled.
However, an unlikely conduit will eventually bring the estranged siblings together. Beth (Madisen Beaty), Laura’s daughter, is a teenager who’s testing her boundaries and the limits of her mother’s patience. On Andrew’s first night in the small town, he crosses paths with Beth outside a corner store trying to get someone to buy her beer, without knowing how she’s related to him. While he buys her the beer, he recognizes the potential danger Beth is courting with her behavior, and becomes something of a gruff guardian angel. Andrew gives her a ride to the house party she’s headed to, and offers his number in case she needs to be picked up later. There is nothing duplicitous about these gestures; they’re purely honorable, perhaps driven by a recognition and knowledge of small-town adolescent activity and how it can quickly turn ugly. The pair form a fast bond, one that will eventually drive the confrontation the film builds toward.
While the fuse is lit early, “In The Radiant City” burns slowly, planting and cultivating the seeds that will bloom in the last act. And while the film is never less than compelling, it does become stagey at points. Most of the scenes in the film feature no more than two major characters at a time, often in long extended conversations, which betrays Lambert’s theater background, and the movie would be just as effective as a play, maybe more so. There is something about the way the characters are positioned and pivoted into the third act that strains credulity and feels manipulative in a way that it might not on the stage. And while “In The Radiant City” manages to ride over those narrative bumps, the unflashy aesthetics don’t help the static cinematic feeling that occasionally settles in.
That being said, there is good reason why Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter,” “Loving”) lent his producing powers to the movie, with Lambert evincing an intimate feel similar to that of his early works. She also proves herself to be a great director of actors, with Ireland turning in the loudest performance, but also one that captures the multi-pronged nuance of everything Laura is suddenly grappling. Beatty is also impressive in her role, which seems like it could be one-note at first, but opens up in the film’s latter half. And then there’s Paul Sparks (“House Of Cards,” “The Night Of”) who turns up in a small but crucial role that’s vital in landing the film’s most powerful dramatic, climatic moment.
When the credits roll on Lambert’s movie, the possibility of healing has only just started, and time remains the biggest burden to be shouldered by everyone, and continues to leave the largest wound. The most impressive accomplishment of “In The Radiant City” is that it’s unafraid to deal in hard truths about redemption, forgiveness, and shame. Lambert puts herself on the map with a drama that smolders with intelligence, empathy for its characters, and a rare resistance to give them an easy out or pat resolution, yet sparks with a flame of undeniable authenticity. [B]
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