Review of Ballast

A story lost in transition

The wonderful thing about the independent film genre is that it allows for new talent and ideas to be explored honestly without all of the usual commercial trappings. Lance Hamme’s Ballast, in that regard, does not disappoint the viewer. The story focuses on a young boy, James, trying to come to terms with his life of poverty, his mother who is caring, but can never quite make ends meet, and James’ uncle who is trying to cope with his brother’s suicide. The lives of these three estranged family members converge when the uncle reveals who he is to James, and that his brother was James’ father. James for a while is involved with a gang of older kids who are into drugs and stealing. James in an effort to belong is constantly holding up his uncle at gunpoint. The uncle never puts up a fight, but has nothing to give. He has withdrawn from the world and closed the market he and his brother ran. Little by little he develops a relationship with his nephew.

The three main actors do a beautiful job of conveying souls that are lost and in need of guidance. Despite being novices to acting, they do a terrific job. The uncle and the mother’s characters are particularly well developed, and the viewer has no problem understanding their motivations and actions. James’ character on the other hand, tends to have a lot of loose ends that the writer never tied off. His mother is very caring and doting, offering him many advantages that she can ill afford. Instead of being the happy kid he could be with such a mother, he chooses for some unknown reason to go off to the dark side and join a gang, as if he had no one who cared for him. Another piece that is hard to understand is why, after being so involved with James, does the gang suddenly disappear from the story. This just leaves the audience wondering where they went and why. James is also difficult to understand. The young man portraying him does a good job, but his southern accent is so thick, one wonders if he is speaking English during the first part of the movie.

The story is good in concept, but the execution of it leaves quite a bit to be desired. The film is a collection of short snippets that don’t allow a flow of the story to develop. These short choppy scenes were presumably done to accommodate actors who had never acted before. The scenes are connected by totally random, overly long interludes of running through bleak winter fields, or driving down a road. All done with a hand held camera, which even for low budget films, is an annoying, cheesy effect. Instead of leading the viewer from one scene to another smoothly, the transitions seem to be just an excuse to consume time.

The director, like his characters, seems to have lost his way. The movie starts to wander aimlessly leaving the audience with a high fidget-factor wondering how this will all end. That unfortunately is a question for which neither the audience nor director, it would seem, ever get an answer. This movie won two awards at Sundance: Director’s Award for Dramatic Competition and the Excellent Cinematography Award for Dramatic Competition. Despite the accolades, this movie is what it is, slow and still under development.

Posted on 02/02/08 by: silent one 08:45 PM