Loggerheads

The reasons that I stay in this business are two fold. The first is so that when a truly amazing movie is released, I can be in a position to help spread the word about it and get people into the theaters to see it. The second, more prominent reason, is so that when this happens, I am able, in some very small way, to feel a part of something truly special… truly unique. While these times may be rare, it's what it's all about for me.

Loggerheads is one of those movies; A movie that had thoughts and debates raging in my mind as I left the theater. It's a movie that inspired me to take the long way home so as to spend more time with the freshness of just having seen it. When a movie touches your mind, your heart and leaves a tiny imprint on your soul, you know it's been time well spent and is something to be cherished.

This film tells the story of three separate lives all affected by the insanity of the closed adoption system in North Carolina. When a child is given up at the time of birth, the records containing his or her true identity are sealed forever. If at any point in the future either the birth mother or the child wishes to contact the other, it can only be achieved through illegal means.

Kip Pardue plays Mark, a young man who, while dealing with life and death issues of his own, is forever scared by the fact that he cannot find his birth mother to at least ask the questions, "Why did you abandon me? Why didn't you ever come for me?"

Bonnie Hunt plays Grace, a woman who gave up her child for adoption and now, 20 years later discovers that her life will never be complete and she will never know happiness until she is able to find the baby that she let go all of those years ago.

With the laws in place as they are neither is likely to ever have the opportunity to find the person they are searching for.

Never falling into the trap of sappy, maudlin type scenes pulling at the obvious emotional heart strings, Loggerheads aims higher and demands the same of its audience. Do not go into this film expecting to be led mindlessly by the hand from one scene to the next to the obvious conclusion you saw coming from the first five minutes. This movie challenges the audience to think as they are watching"¦ to consider the possibilities and to see what may not initially be widely apparent.

The casting for this film could not have been more ideal. Kip Pardue, one of the most talented and intelligent actors of his generation, plays the isolation and ubiquitous despondency of his character so deeply and

so honestly that you will find yourself connecting with him on such a personal level, that the end of the film will leave you shedding more than a few tears.

Veteran performers Chris Sarandon and Tess Harper bring a complexity to their roles as the church going, God fearing adopted parents of a now ostracized gay man that is rarely seen. Your allegiances will shift and your final judgments will leave you unsettled.

I won't go into the details of the plot as I think that would taint the experience of seeing it all unfold for the first time before your eyes, but suffice it to say that the layers of the story and the performances are almost boundless. There are things you'll be noticing as you look back on the film the following day that you hadn't even considered prior. This is a film that I will be paying to see again just to have the opportunity to discover more than I was able the first time around.

See this with a friend or two because I guarantee you will all walk out with different takes and opinions all ripe for discussion and debate.

Movie Grade: A

About the Movie:

Inspired by a true story, and set in three different geographical regions of North Carolina, ‘Loggerheads’ follows the journey of Mark, a soft-spoken drifter in his 20s who makes a pilgrimage to a small coastal town near Wilmington in order to save the endangered Loggerhead turtles that nest on the beach in the summer. Mark’s journey brings us into contact with three other characters, each at the crossroads of their lives. George is a local motel owner who, until now, has avoided dealing with his emotions. Grace, a middle-aged woman recovering from a breakdown, has returned to her hometown in the mountains near Asheville to stay with her mother. Plagued by the desire to fill an emotional void, Grace embarks on a search for the child she secretly gave up for adoption when she was a teenager. Elizabeth has lived a fishbowl existence as the wife of a minister for 25 years in a small town in the foothills of the state. When her safe, sheltered neighborhood starts to ch ange around her, Elizabeth must decide whether to stand by her conservative husband’s beliefs or take a stand on her own.