Fairhaven explores those of us who stay in the small hometowns of our birth, and those of us who leave. Either way, it seems, you can never escape yourself or your past—but when you stay, you’re hit in the face with both every day. When you leave, you get to create a new identity while keeping your real name.
While a few of the scenes in this movie felt like clips from an acting workshop, that seemed to be more the fault of the director than the fine cast of actors—anchored by Chris Messina, in the role as Dave—the one who escaped the sleepy New England fishing community, and never looked back. This guy can do angsty comedy, he can get cast (appropriately) in sitcoms and television dramas, Woody Allen cast him, he was Ira in the lovely, but quirky Ira & Abbey, opposite Jennifer Westfeldt. He played Ted, the conservative good guy boyfriend of Clare in the last season of the HBO masterpiece, Six Feet Under. And now, it seems, he can even do bad boy with conviction, as he tears through joints, tequila shots and lines of coke with a new girl per night in Fairhaven.
Fairhaven asks the question, “What else is there?” Each character, in the own way, is looking for the trail head. These sorts of quiet, underrated movies are often overlooked because people don’t want to be confronted with the fallacies of their own lives. Exes, loyalty, and their own feelings of isolation and solitude. But if you are the sort of viewer who likes to probe at the elusive, these eighty minutes are worth it.