4/10

First time director, Sara Colangelo, clashes the lives of two families who have more in common than either of them could imagine. “Little Accidents” is a melodrama about two different events that shook a small mining town to it’s core. The first is a mining accident that killed several union cave workers in a controversial cover up. One man, Amos, (Boyd Hollbrook) is the only man to come out of the cave alive, and is left to testify against the company that employs a majority of the townspeople. Amos’s son, Owen (Jacob Lofland) is involved with the second part of the film. The boy accidentally murders another teenage boy while playing in the woods one day. No one is around, and Owen covers up any traces that link him to the crime. These two big clashing stories are happening at the same time while a grieving mother and father (Elisabeth Banks and Josh Lucas) mourn the disappearance of their son. What i enjoyed about the idea of Colangelo’s inagural efforts is that she puts these characters on a race track knowing full well that we the audience can see a crash coming from a mile away. The two co-storylines is a great idea that is choreographed very well up the final ten minutes of the big reveal. This movie had the ability to present Banks and Lucas as emotional heavyweights in the drama genre, but instead it leaves us with an ending that isn’t work 98 minutes of investment from it’s audience. The film tested my patience in more ways than one with the muddled lack of emotional depth from it’s cast. These parents find out their child is murdered, so don’t tell me that they wouldn’t be violent with the boy standing in front of them revealing his big mistake. The film also doesn’t show any kind of consequence or what happens when Owen reveals the truth to his father who is conveniently having an affair with Elisabeth Banks. The town is a small one, but the coincidences are mind shattering. I also don’t understand how i am supposed to register that Banks is a good person to invest in, or that she is even affected by the loss of her son after having an affair with Holbrook. It seems to me like Sara wanted to make these characters feel human, and i totally understand that. What doesn’t work is when conflict is created just to twist the plot even further. There has to be a big payoff or emotional release for any of these things to work. Lucas knows his wife is having an affair, but never approaches Holbrook. It’s like these people are reactionless zombies satisfied with a mediocre life full of disappointments. The camera direction shows a lot of promise from a young filmmaker getting her feet wet for the first time. The foggy camera backgrounds are chilling, the story is intriguing, but the performances she directs from her cast destroys any hope of a personal reward for such a durable investment. With a stronger cast and reactions that we could hear instead of just see, “Little Accidents” could’ve been a needle in the haystack for an evergrowing field of video on demand melodramas. You definitely see the train coming from a mile away with this town sitting on the tracks, but you never get to feel the boom of the explosion. Pass on bland offerings.