Straight A’s almost feels like a parody of the American indie dramedy. It functions almost entirely on quirk, telling the story of an outsider character bursting the tenuous bubble of what appears to be a solid family unit. There are precocious kids, animal hijinks, trite bits of sage advice, scenes of family drama and inappropriate public behavior, and a ghost. And through it all, there is a painful lack of genuine human drama. The better-than-average lensing gives the movie some appeal, but doesn’t quite acquit the movie of its sins. In the end, the film is just about as annoying as it sounds.
Katherine (Anna Paquin) and her two children are surprised when Scott (Ryan Philippe) shows up at their Shreveport home, riding a horse. Scott and Katherine used to be together, but she ended up marrying his brother William (Luke Wilson). Scott is in Shreveport on the wishes of his mother, who he’s been talking to in spite of the fact that she’s deceased. He’s meant to make amends with William, but William is away on business. In the meanwhile, he stays in the house and explores old feelings with Katherine while bonding with his niece and nephew and causing all sorts of trouble.
The shapeless narrative relies heavily on the novelty of quirk to move things forward. In lieu of actual and character development, the movie concerns itself with a series of storytelling gimmicks to give the appearance of structure and movement. The story is needlessly broken up into separate days, introduced each time by a title card. There isn’t much to hold on to. The true motives of the main character are kept vague for most of the runtime. With his intentions left unclear, his behavior largely seems like random bad behavior.
The character is meant to be charming, but the film relies on appearances to make that case. There’s almost nothing in the script that would actually endear the character to any reasonable human being. The same can be said of the rest of the characters. They are experiencing only facsimiles of human emotion, their relationships kept at a shallow level and never truly explored. It is enough for the film that the characters looked troubled, that they are presented in meticulously composed frames as beings yearning for something other than their lot. It flirts with big questions, and pretends to have answers. But the writing just doesn’t back that up.
The film’s technical package is solid enough, with some creative lensing giving the visuals some measure of distinction. The acting is a little all over the place. In the lead role, Ryan Philippe overplays the physical swagger, broadly embracing the strangeness of his character. In contrast, Anna Paquin underplays her character’s anguish, playing subtler notes that end up being swallowed by Philippe’s much larger presence. Luke Wilson turns into a non-presence with a character that refuses to be fleshed out.
Straight A’s is just a vaguely pretty surface that indicates an emotional depth that isn’t actually there. Even the title lacks relevance and meaning. It’s drawn from a throwaway line somewhere in the middle of the movie, espousing the trite philosophy that life isn’t really about getting good grades. But that really has little to do with the bigger picture that the movie is pretending to paint. The elements of the movie suggest a thoughtful exploration of death and longing, of families split apart and loves long lost. But it is merely a suggestion. The movie goes no further than that.
My Rating:
