Sex, Death and Bowling

Plot synopsis:
Sean McAllister (Adrian Grenier) is a successful fashion designer who returns home to Arizona when he learns his brother, Rick (Bailey Chase), has cancer. Sean has been gone for a while ever since getting into an argument with his father. Rick lives at home with his wife, Glenn (Selma Blair), and his live-in nurse Ana (Drea De Matteo). Sean and Rick's father Dick (Daniel Hugh Kelly) owns a local sports equipment shop and is an avid bowler. Rick's son, Eli (Joshua Rush) idolizes his father and his grandfather and wishes to become as good a bowler as the two of them. Sean arrives and immediately begins opening up old wounds with his father. Sean is gay, and an incident when he was younger involving another boy from the high school football team whom a teacher saw brought shame to Dick, resulting in the two becoming distant even after Sean's rise to fame. Sean tries to reconcile with both his father and his brother, but it proves difficult.
Dick is trying to win a bowling tournament, the Fiesta Bowl, but trouble arises when one of his bowlers becomes injured. Trying to reconnect with his father and family, Sean agrees to join the team. They eventually win the tournament, and bring home the trophy to Rick.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Class Treatment of Difficult Material. I'm not a fan of narration. Especially that of precocious, pre-pubescent boys with grown-up wisdom. But that was the only thing that annoyed me here. The rest was excellent.I really like the way they treated the concept of dying at home. Get some friends and family together and some morphine, and ride it out on your home turf. Not in a hospital. It doesn't have to be too depressing, assuming that you built some equity in a community and a family.I also appreciate that they incorporated our changing demographics without bombarding us with politically correct messages. Yes, rural towns in the west have mixed populations with lots of Hispanics. Yes, even All American families may have someone practicing an alternative lifestyle.Grenier did not have to show much range here, but he doesn't generally anyways. That's o.k. He has a unique look and you do perceive his sensitivity. I'm more tolerant of brief flashbacks than narration. I don't like long flashbacks. These were brief but effective. You did sense his pain.The kid was outstanding and everyone else was excellent. The father was very believable. Small towns do revolve around jocks and sports. If you're different it can be a real bitch. You see that here.I'm assuming that reincarnation played some role in the final bowling sequence. I think the spirit of the famous bowler mentioned in the beginning may have inhabited one of the characters.Either way, I like the way they wove the kid's spiritual questions into the plot. He visits a priest and a Hindu. In that sense it was sort of like the Woody Allen move when he does the same, looking for answers.Other than one or two indie folk songs, the music did not play a huge role. The focus was on dialog and relationships without too much manipulation. Personal redemption and revenge play into it.This is a slow film. If you have patience for thoughtful pictures, then you will probably like it.. It was okay but Predictable. Sorry, but I am tired of somebody always having to come out in movies nowadays. This sideline in this film was obvious from the jump. Look for the sequel, where the kid Eli is gay too. I mean, the kid is so "sensitive" and everything. So the guy kisses some jock in the locker room and gets busted in a Jerry Sandusky kind of way. But was that all there was to it? Just a kiss? Was there a scandal at school? Did all the kids know? Is that when he "became gay?" Awwwww, but big brother knew. So then why is the kid so broken up? For dad's approval? The flashbacks of the "incident" do not make sense. Was the kid molested? What happened to the jock he made out with? The pompous, insensitive British boyfriend? Was the bowling match and the fist fight afterward supposed to prove to Dad that his boy is really a man after all? And what was with the suffering young widow? What a mess just to advance a gay storyline. Especially since the guy didn't seem to happy with being gay to me. Kind of like it bothered him.