Good Side of Bad – A Moving Story
Director: Alethea Root
Cast: Lexi Simonsen, Jules Bruff, Alex Quijano, Myles Grier, Tess Harper
Cert: tbc
Running time: 96 mins
Directed by Alethea Root, this smalltown USA sibling drama is adapted from the novel by Beverly Olevin. As such, it’s a compassionate and contemplative exploration of mental health issues, grief and fractured family relationships.
The film begins with a very short piece of narration, as Florence (Lexi Simonsen), an aspiring photographer in her early 20s, describes a photograph that shows her, her older sister Sara (Jules Bruff, who also co-wrote the script with Root and Ciera Danielle), her older brother Peter (Alex Quijano) and her mother Mary Ellen (Tess Harper), observing that their mother struggled with both mental health issues and alcohol and that as a result, she and her brother were both effectively raised by Sara.
Immediately afterwards, a panicked Florence runs towards the camera, muttering to herself, before throwing herself off a bridge and into the water below. She’s subsequently taken into psychiatric care, where she’s diagnosed as schizophrenic, though she maintains that she was not trying to commit suicide, rather she threw herself into the water to protect herself from a gang of hooded men who were pursuing her.
After Florence is evicted from her apartment for non-payment of rent, an understandably concerned Sara insists that she move into her apartment, but she finds herself increasingly unable to deal with Florence’s schizophrenic episodes, and only gets intermittent help from a frustrated Peter, who lives in Los Angeles (an eighteen hour drive away from wherever their small town is), and already has his hands full with Mary Ellen, who has dementia.
The source novel tells the story from each of the sibling’s perspectives in turn, effectively giving them each their own tale to tell. However, the script concentrates on Florence and Sara, so we learn very little about Peter’s life outside of him visiting family members. In fairness, that might have done the audience a favour, as Peter is apparently meant to be a Wall Street trader, something that is never mentioned in the film.
Simonsen (who looks a bit like a young Chloe Sevigny and a bit like Haley Lu Richardson) is terrific as Florence, delivering a performance that is deeply sympathetic, whilst at the same time clearly demonstrating how frustrating and irritating her behaviour is for her siblings (Peter, for example, has far less patience than Sara). At the same time, Simonsen’s depiction of her schizophrenic episodes is genuinely upsetting and terrifying.
Bruff is equally good as Sara, and there’s strong support from both Quijano and Harper, as well as Myles Grier, who delivers a charismatic turn as Dennis, a fellow troubled psychiatric ward patient with whom Florence strikes up a relationship. There is, admittedly, a slight plausibility issue, in the apparent ease with which Florence is able to sneak into Dennis’ rom every night in the psychiatric ward, but that’s a small niggle.
In short, this is a sensitively directed and quietly moving story about an imperfect, slightly fractured family (Florence refers to it as “imperfect perfection”) coming together to help each other. It also has an effective and powerful message about accepting the need for help, something we could all use in these troubled times.
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