Short Term 12

You may have noticed, if you are one to regularly check the blog, that I did not have a post for yesterday.  While I would love to cite reasons such as being too busy thwarting an impromptu ninja assault that threatened all that is good and decent with Brantford, Ontario, I would hate to mislead you.  For myself, some days are good, and some are not.  Also in the mix are the dreaded days that are worse than the ‘some are not’, and I have been stuck with a few of those for the last week which ends up taking a bit of a toll on things like motivation and productivity.  Good and bad days are nothing foreign to all people, although they vary in intensity from person to person, and all have their various reasons for existing.  Today, I am going to look at a film from 2013 that pays attention to the emotional harm that an awful childhood can have on a person, and the people who work to try and cure the futures of those whose lives never gave them a chance for anything ‘normal,’ in Short Term 12.

The movie is around the on-goings of a foster-care facility, in which Grace (Brie Larson) is a young supervisor, working to ensure that the kids at the facility have a safe experience, which is her primary task.  Within that, her coworkers and herself, out of bleeding hearts and love for the teens, work to establish relationships, skills, and confidence in the residents, with genuine care and desire that these people will be able to break out of the issues of their past and upbringing and achieve fulfilling lives.  A young girl named Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), with a history of bouncing around from group home to group home, presents a challenge to Grace, who does all that she can to create a bond with the young and troubled girl.  Also working at the facility is Mason (John Gallagher Jr.), who is the boyfriend of Grace, and shows and undying love to the residents.

The film is a sad, joyous, hurtful, encouraging, traumatic, and inspiring tale of the scars that can be left on people when their childhoods rob them of any possibility of innocence and a healthy mental grasp on reality.  The film flows well from the characters we meet, who are created not just to be scenery, but to have their own, personal identities, dysfunctions, and traits.  The characters are created so well that there is a little bit in some (or each) character that can resonate and hit home with us, whether for good or bad, and that is what creates the foundation for this film.  We see these people through the eyes of Grace and Mason, and we want to love them, see them grow, and become free of the unfair constraints that were forced on them from factors beyond their control.

Grace and Mason also have characters that are well developed, and it becomes clear as to why the job they are doing is so important to them, and why they are willing to sacrifice anything they can on the possibility that one of the residents in their care may succeed at life.  Grounding the characters are dynamic performances, especially on the side of Brie Larson.  While I should be spending this time right here remaining critical of the film and nothing outside of it, I cannot help but vent my frustrations that this young woman was not given an Oscar nomination for Lead Actress, and it is a crime that she was not even considered to be a close contender for a nomination.  Her performance in this movie is so layered and nuanced that we see Grace as both an adult and a child, someone who has a personal history of hurt who is hiding it when she needs to be confronting it.  She becomes, at times, appearing as a messed up teen who is in charge of messed up teens, and the only thing that separates them is her job.

The movie’s cinematography was very well done, with the framing and tones of the shots adding to the emotional atmosphere of the film.  Destin Cretton, the director, moves the film along at the perfect pace, never rushing the build towards scenes, and never cutting emotional moments too short that they do not have enough opportunity to properly sink in.  It is because of his storytelling ability that our hearts become invested in this world as much as they do, and he shows a wonderful grasp on leading actors in subtleties.

I will completely admit that I cried in this film, but as well, I want to quickly say that this is not one of those movies that sets out to make people cry as their end game.  Emotional destruction is not the goal of this movie, telling a deep tale about one of the most heartwrenching aspects of life is what they are attempting.  In that process, we feel the pain, but we also feel encouraged, that change and growth are possible not just for teens, but for anybody.  We feel joy that the cycles of life are able to be broken and that anybody can have a chance at an enjoyable life out from the shadows of childhood torment.

For people who have personal histories of abusive childhoods, this movie may hit home very deeply, but I believe it is still worth the trek into personal darkness.  As I mentioned, the film is not to bring us to a point of crying and sadness, it is to create a wide range of emotions, with many of those being positive.  Like a good counselling session, sometimes you need to get through the bad to leave feeling good.  The movie is the first feature film of director Destin Cretton, and thanks to him we have a tear-jerker that leaves us with a smile.

Rating - 4 out of 4 stars