Plot
In a small American town still living in the shadow of a terrible coal mine accident, the disappearance of a teenage boy draws together a surviving miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive, and a local boy in a web of secrets.
Release Year: 2014
Rating: 7.1/10 (180 voted)
Critic's Score: 67/100
Director: Sara Colangelo
Stars: Elizabeth Banks, Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Lofland
Storyline
In a small American town still living in the shadow of a terrible coal mine accident, the disappearance of a teenage boy draws together a surviving miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive, and a local boy in a web of secrets.
Cast: Elizabeth Banks -
Diane Doyle
Boyd Holbrook -
Amos Jenkins
Jacob Lofland -
Owen
Josh Lucas -
Bill Doyle
Chloƫ Sevigny -
Kendra
Alexia Rasmussen -
Nellie
James DeForest Parker -
Basil
Beau Wright -
James
Travis Tope -
JT Doyle
Randy Springer -
John McAlister
M. Shane Abell -
Bar friend
(voice)
Grant Bauman -
Justin
Mike Bizzarri -
Ron Greenbaum
Katie DeLuca -
Claire
Annie Fitzpatrick -
Sandy
Taglines:
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 22 January 2014
Technical Specs
Runtime:
User Review
Author:
Rating: 8/10
I wasn't planning to attend Little Accidents when it screened at the
Seattle International Film Festival. With 450 films from which to
choose, a film about a coal mining disaster sounded depressing.
However, when I was sent a free pass from SIFF, I went anyway.
Not only was I was pleasantly surprised by Sara Colangelo's debut
feature film, I was moved by it. Little Accidents is the type of film
that stays with you long after the lights come up.
Although it is a coal mine disaster that sets the events of the film in
motion, the action begins months after the accident, as Amos Jenkins
(Boyd Holbrook) returns to his life in the small West Virginia town
after convalescing from injuries that he sustained in the accident. He
is the sole survivor.
Life is anything but normal as Amos finds himself torn between telling
the truth about the cause of the accident, and keeping his mouth shut,
which will dishonor his ten friends who died. If he testifies that
management's cost-cutting decisions led to the disaster, the mine will
be closed and his friends and family will be left without any way to
feed their families.
Just as the town is beginning to deal with the loss of the miners, the
son of one of the mine's managers (Josh Lucas) goes missing. Is it
retaliation or a freak accident? Young Owen, played by Jacob Loftland
(Mud), who is the son of a killed miner, has the answer, but he deals
with his own struggle to reveal the truth.
The character-driven film follows the seemingly parallel story lines of
Amos, Owen and Diane Doyle (Elizabeth Banks), the mother of the missing
boy, but eventually the parallel lives begin to intertwine as they find
themselves connected by fate.
The performances by everyone in this film, especially Holbrook and
Loftland, are superb. A touching scene between Amos and Diane outside a
convenience store nearly left me in tears.
Although I felt the relationship between Amos and Dianne could have
been developed further, I was fully satisfied by the completion of the
plot lines and left feeling blown away by the entire experience, which
was enhanced by the attendance of the director, Colangelo.
Colangelo directed a 2010 short by the same name, which deals with
issues of the working class. She wanted to set the expanded feature
film in a mining community, after being moved by so many recent
coal-mining accidents that she was unable to get off her mind.
One interesting piece of information that Colangelo provided was that
the movie was shot in 24 days and entirely in film, in order to capture
the grittiness of the subject matter. Kodak donated half of the film.
Little Accidents isn't so much a film about a coal mining disaster as
it is a film about loss and how we choose to deal with the tragic
events that occur in our lives. Of all the films I saw at SIFF this
year, this is my favorite.
The film is set to be released in January 2015. Go see it!
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