I’m a fan of The Office, particularly the sweetness of couple Jim
and Pam, but while I have seen John Krasinski in other roles, I’d never
seen Jenna Fischer in anything else. Hence, I was intrigued when my
friend Libbie rented A Little Help, the 2010 Michael J. Weithorn movie in which Fischer stars as overwhelmed mom Laura Pehlke.
Fischer brings a darkness to this role that we never see in The Office.
When the movie begins, Laura is not a happy person. Her pre-teen son
Dennis (newcomer Daniel Yelsky) seems to hate her, and her husband Bob
(Chris O’Donnell) is distant. She wants to improve both those
relationships, but a few minutes into the movie, Bob dies of an
arrhythmia, and she has to learn how to manage as a single mom on shaky
financial ground. Just about the only person she can turn to who isn’t
trying to run her life for her is her gentle brother-in-law Paul (Rob
Benedict), who has loved her since childhood.
This movie is
billed as both comedy and drama, but most of the funny moments were too
painful for me to laugh at. It’s populated with profoundly miserable
people, and bad things keep happening to them. It’s a deeply
uncomfortable film, starting with the fact that several scenes take
place in the dentist’s office where Laura works. Additionally, it’s set
in New York City and begins nearly a year after September 11, 2001, an
event central to the film as Dennis, having been forced by his
overbearing Aunt Kathy (Brooke Smith) and grandma (Lesley Ann Warren) to
attend a new school several towns away, tells his new classmates that
his father was a firefighter who saved several people at the World Trade
Center before perishing.
It’s a movie filled with broken
relationships. The healthiest one we see is that between Paul and his
15-year-old son Kyle (Zach Page), an aspiring musician, and that is
threatened by Kathy’s attempts to strong-arm Paul into discouraging
Kyle’s music. Interestingly, music not only cements the bond between
that father and son, one of Laura’s happiest memories involves singing
along to the car radio with Dennis, an activity he usually considers too
uncool now.
On the other hand, noise is a consistent source
of stress in Laura’s life, from the parrot squawking at the office to
the dog constantly barking outside. When Dennis has something he really
wants to tell her, he sends her an IM; he’s noticed that she tunes him
out along with the rest of it. One of the film’s most powerful moments
comes when Dennis releases his neighbor’s dog in an effort to relieve
his mother of his incessant barking. Laura runs after the pooch, calling
him by name, and he meekly returns to her, whimpering. This seems
deeply symbolic of her relationship with her son, whose angst and
audacious lies are just his way of reaching out in a world where the
person he needs most usually appears indifferent or hostile.
It’s interesting to see Fischer in such a different role, which she
occupies well, though it takes most of the movie for Laura to become
truly sympathetic. Benedict brings a higher likability factor to Paul,
the most endearing character in the movie, but in some ways his story is
the most pathetic of all. This is a film about rebuilding broken
relationships; none of the three marriages we see is particularly
successful, and the parent-child rifts sting. By the end, some measure
of healing has begun, but is it enough? Despite touching scenes
involving three significant people in Laura’s life, the conclusion, like
the rest of the movie, left me feeling empty. I’m not sure if the film
failed or if I just wasn’t the right audience, but aside from a few
lovely glimmers, A Little Help left me out in the cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment