Good intentions are enough in this sensitive PTBS drama

I will start today to ask a handshake. Who saw a film here in which the twist end was one of the characters was secretly dead all the time? Ok, keep it up. One, two – hey you on your cell phone, you lift your hand or do you tell someone hello? Ok, that’s three … about three hundred million! Great!

“My dead friend zoe” is not One of these films. Debut by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes main role Sonequa Martin-Green (“Star Trek: Discovery”) as a Merit, a veteran of the army, who has to fight with PTBS. Your best friend Zoe – Spoiler alarm for anyone who has not read the title is dead, but still with earnings. She is played by Natalie Morales (“no hard feelings”) and despite the whole thing that she is actually quite lively and provides an ongoing comment on Merit’s life and fears.

The film reveals that Zoe is only in Merit’s head in the first scenes because it is not about surprising the audience. (And if you consider how often this special turn is, it would be no surprise anyway.) It is about living with Merit’s emergency every day, understanding where it runs from and why she runs into the past where all her regret lies. Hausmann-Stokes do not screw with us, it is as direct as possible.

Merit refuses in group therapy under the direction of Dr. To open Cole (Morgan Freeman). Zoe doesn’t want her anyway. When Merit finds out that her grandfather Dale (Ed Harris) is in the early phases of Alzheimer’s, she packs Zoe together and drives to his Seehaus. Dale is a wonderful old man when he is not a curvy old fart, but his problems plunge out of his control and deserving to spoil himself, not a great caretaker.

There are many stories about the experiences of American veterans. Some of the more famous are the search for brazen and violent Katharsis. “My Dead Friend Zoe” is the sensitive, downplayed variety, a tender character about people and their complicated feelings. As directed by Hausmann-Stokes, who have included the script with AJ Bermudez, the film seems really sensitive to the stories of its characters and everyone in the audience who can refer to their fights.

The film also seems to be padded in a centimeter of his life and shows the unmistakable plumage of a short film that was adapted so long before Wikipedia was checked and confirm that this was indeed. The story has just enough incident to fill 15 to 20 minutes, and yet it runs for 98 of them. Merit’s relationship with Dr. Cole has a facility and a payment and almost nothing in between. Her flashbacks to war, when Zoe was still alive, indicates turns and reversations or at least something that resembles external conflicts, but this road leads into nowhere. This is ultimately granted as the point, but long shuttle traffic is a long way, no matter where you end.

There are worse things that a film can be padded next to, and “My Dead Friend Zoe” is none of these things. His heart is in the right place, its characters feel real (even if they are literally not), and for everyone who rings this story a bell, it is a tear jerk. Martin-Green is characterized by the navigation of emotional whirlpools and carries the film with dignity. Morales embodies a playful, jealous IMP in Merit’s brain and a complex, contradictory, extremely human being in the flashbacks. Harris, who has no narrative invention to combat her, is simply exceptional than an old man who realizes that he needs help, just as he hurts and annoys him.

“My Dead Friend Zoe” is a noble film, apparently honest and open. It is not terribly exciting, and it fights to justify its modest length, but the plot is not everything. It is a great way to get the audience long enough to convey all their noble ideas, but the characters of Hausmann-Stokes are almost fascinating in themselves. Not quite, but almost. A great line -up can get a long way. Today they took “My Dead Friend Zoe” over the line, from “good intentions” to “Good Movie”.

The contribution ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’ Review: Good intentions in this sensitive PTBS drama are first sufficient on Thewrap.