Little Accidents (2014)

Perfect cast and a good story

Good start, but then it gets ruined

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A recent coal mining accident left 10 dead and the town split. Amos Jenkins (Boyd Holbrook) is the sole survivor suffering memory lost and a limp. There is an FBI investigation and the families are looking to sue. The main contention is that one of the dead miners, Junior Briggs, had a fight with supervisor Bill Doyle (Josh Lucas) over safety but Amos is either reluctant to tell the truth or unable to recall. Bill's wife Diana (Elizabeth Banks) and their son JT find their car window smashed. Junior leaves behind his wife Kendra (Chloë Sevigny), sons Owen and mentally challenged James. One day, JT runs across the smaller Owen in the woods. They argue, JT starts chasing, and Owen throws a rock. JT falls and gets killed hitting a rock. Owen hides the body and swears James to silence. A search for JT is unsuccessful. Bill is suspended and Diana seeks solace in an affair with Amos.This movie has a nice quiet devastation. The actors are good. The visual has a good dirty grim. The young lead kid is excellent. The main problem is that the Doyles seem to stop looking for JT. There is perhaps one or two scenes of a search group. It's oddly obvious that they don't even talk about JT after awhile. It got to a point where I wondered if I missed them finding the body. It would make more sense if the Doyles' marriage starts disintegrating after finding their son dead. Their actions don't make emotional sense. This could have been a great indie except for that.

'Little Accidents' seems anything but little, with the exception of the tiny town this all takes place in. Director Sara Colangelo takes control of a stellar cast in this unsmiling drama about two major events in a small coal mining town. Colangelo does a great job in not jumping on clichés, and letting her characters be true to themselves, but often throughout the film, there are several circumstances and characters that don't get to earn their keep. Colangelo did say she had a three hour film with this, but was cut down to under two hours. I think the three hour cut would have been perfect, but I expect good word of mouth of avid film fans to recommend this one, despite some of its clunky execution.Boyd Holbrook plays Amos, a coal miner who is the sole survivor of a recent mining accident in this home town that left ten of his co-workers dead, which was caused by upper management negligence. Upon his return home after a few months in an out-of-town hospital, he is still without use of most of his right side, and is still trying to put the pieces back together of what happened. He is physically and emotionally drained at this point, and Holbrook pulls this off nicely.Meanwhile, high-school freshman Owen (Jacob Lofland, Neckbone from last year's 'Mud') is the son of one of the dead mining victims, where his mother (Chloe Sevigny) is constantly showering him and his younger brother with down syndrome with the newest video games and electronics to keep them happy in the short term. Owen bring his younger brother along to play with some of the other older kids in school, but they all tend to rag and bully the two brothers constantly, even though Owen wants to fit it.Among these bullies is JT (Travis Tope), who is the son of Bill Doyle (Josh Lucas), who is one of the head managers of the coal mine and directly responsible for the tragic event that left ten miners dead several months ago. During a conflict in the woods with Owen and JT, Owen is accidentally involved in JT's death, and not knowing what to do, he hides the body and does not tell anyone about it. Meanwhile, Bill and his wife Diana (Elizabeth Banks, amazing) conduct a major search for their son with the whole town.There is certainly an undertone of the class system here, but it is never 'too on the nose', which was nice to see. And being set in a small town, it wasn't that weird to see new relationships form, such as a grieve-stricken Diana taking up a suitor in Amos and befriending Owen, when not one of them knows all of their dirty secrets. I imagine in its true form, 'Little Accidents' is about being honest with one's self and being guilt free, but it takes quite a bit of time to get to this point.There are several instances that are drawn out over the course of the film with much build up, but don't receive a pay off or even a conclusion. I would hope that the three hour cut defines these characters better. The acting by everyone is top notch, and they all deserve some sort of group acting award. And Colangelo's artistic eye is beautiful and stylistic, although there is room for work in the editing room. 'Little Accidents' is a good film about honesty, despite its flaws. And I expect big things in the future from Colangelo.

I like this movie first half but gets a little slow after the end moves and one is attracted to the characters, feeling part of them. Although the story is somewhat predictable but no less shirt. Here what I did not like is that there was more connection between Amos and I think Diane was very artificial that connection between the two. Overall it is a film that is well done with good photography and good believable characters, the plot is very well focused in history.Actoralmente is very good, very well-chosen cast their director also performed a very good script, with some details but not generally perceived.

This could be the title. Although this title would seem a bit trite. It would still be accurate. There are several unfortunate little accidents in this tale. The first involves the mine collapsing on top of the 11 miners. At least, this is called an accident on the surface.......lol...Sorry I couldn't resist. But once you get to the...bottom...of the matter...you learn that Management's tale was definitely not very sturdy....It's difficult to identify the protagonist of the story at first, but you ultimately settle on Jenkins. He was the only one who survived the "accident". He does get some action from the slutty cheerleader Mom, whose son died in the first five minutes...Any way, it's a sad story all around. Working in a mine can be very...dreary....