The film deserves all ten stars. It has everything. Great acting, good plot, but the themes - oh, my, the themes!
There is friendship and the influences that tug and tear at it. Would the two men who are slacker/criminals stay together and remain the 'bros' they seem to be for life?
There is family and what makes a family. What used to be revered - the role of father - is denied by one man and assumed by two others. No one seems qualified to assume the role, not even the state providing services. But then, that is what every man who becomes a father needs to ask himself: am I good enough for this job?
There is the role of the mother. Being a biological mother with a strong love for her child, a woman fails and fails again. Ultimately, she can't cope with the repeating failure and she removes herself from the family - permanently. How a woman can feel the total responsibility on her weak shoulders is portrayed so accurately in this film, it brings tears. At one point, she asks an interviewer, 'Can you help me?' The shock is: he can't. Or he won't.
There is the role of teacher. Someone who has to go by the rules, even when he may suspect that the rules are going to not play out to the benefit of a child.
Then there is, for me the most important, what makes a stable relationship without sex? My impression was that these two men are not homosexuals and don't become homosexuals. Yet, their bond is strong enough to keep them in the project of a lifetime - raising a child to adulthood. At the very least, you hope that when a man and woman marry, they can get that far - to raise a child to be a young successful independent adult. But often don't! Even same-sex marriage suffer from the same maladies. Two friends? What are the odds that they could?
There is the resilience of the young boy. Does every young person come so well equipped? Why did he turn out to have a future NOT behind bars but with a chance at a real education? Why is the fear that the child with a background stained by tragedy is somehow less equipped to deal with bad influences, whether while growing up or when operating as an adult?
There is so much to think about having seen this movie - that it is almost TOO thought-provoking. It's a feel-good movie AND a downer movie. People are poor. Women suffer in relationships that strain their abilities to cope, and when they and children are abandoned. All too acceptable and 'normal' in today's world. There are no easy answers, not from watching this story unfold.
Yet, it is worth every second of watching!
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