Sunlight Jr
DIRECTOR: Laurie Collyer
CAST: Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Tess Harper
RUNNING TIME: 134minutes
CLASSIFICATION: 16 LNS
RATING: ***
NAOMI Watts and Matt Dillon bring impressive emotional and physical heat to Sunlight Jr, director/screenwriter Laurie Collyer’s beautifully observed character study of an unmarried couple living on the economic margins. Featuring the same humanistic qualities as the film-maker’s last effort, Sherrybaby, this low-key gem being featured at the Tribeca Film Festival shines a sympathetic light on an ever-growing underclass that too rarely receives cinematic exposure.
Very much in love, convenience store assistant Melissa (Watts) and her paraplegic boyfriend Richie (Dillon) are barely making ends meet on his monthly disability cheques and her low wages.
Their harsh circumstances are immediately signalled in the opening scene, when they run out of petrol on the way to taking her to work.
Facing eviction from the run-down motel in which they live, they find their lives further complicated by Melissa’s abusive boss and her frequent run-ins with Justin (Reedus, of The Walking Dead), the ex-boyfriend who keeps sniffing around now that a restraining order has been lifted.
Collyer’s minimalist screenplay revolves such less-than-earthshaking plot elements as Melissa being consigned to the graveyard shift and the news of an unplanned pregnancy. But it beautifully conveys the intense bond between the two principal characters, their love undimmed by their poverty.
Dillon, an actor who’s played more than his share of heavies, brings a tender sweetness to his portrayal of the wheelchair-bound, hard-drinking Richie, who’s not afraid to get in a physical dust-up with the muscular Justin despite his handicap. And Watts brings a sexy intensity to her turn as the beleaguered Melissa, whose hopes of getting into a college scholarship programme are consistently thwarted.
Set in a seedy underbelly of southern Florida dominated by strip malls and flea markets, the film conveys its lower-class milieu with a bracing authenticity.
The lowered expectations are vividly illustrated by Melissa’s mother (an excellent Harper), who runs a makeshift child-care centre in her home, telling her “Richie never hit you… so you did good there.”
The film also includes – in a rarity for today’s prudish cinema – a torrid sex scene between Watts and Dillon that inevitably recalls the groundbreaking one featuring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight in Coming Home 35 years ago.
Sunlight Jr is unblinking in its bleak depiction of its main characters’ plight. But its positive portrayal of two mature people who truly respect and care for each other provides uplifting glimmers of hope. – Hollywood Reporter
If you liked Sherrybaby or Ain’t Them Bodies Saints you will like this.