Starring: Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Tess Harper, Adrienne Lovette, Antoni Corone
Written and Directed By: Laurie Collyer
Occasionally, a movie comes out and I find myself talking about something other than the general quality of the film or the acting, or the directing. For Sunlight Jr., an OK movie otherwise, the films score is distractingly awful. Occasionally during scene changes, a blaring generic soft rock track cuts in for a few seconds. It’s the kind of awful that sounds like it was ripped from some free website somewhere. POWER CHORD. ELECTRIC GUITAR. SO COOL. No. It isn’t. Apparently, none of the music is original, so I have to blame the “music supervisors”.
Aside from that, I’m actually biased in a positive direction. I’m friends with Adrienne Lovette, who plays Vivian, a co-worker of Naomi Watts’s Melissa. It was super exciting to see her sharing scenes with Naomi Watts. Even with that, I have to be honest. I thought the movie moved incredibly slow. I thought it was poorly directed. There’s a scene with Matt Dillon in a trailer park, where he’s paired up with several “ugly, white trash” types. He immediately looks prettier than he should be, and becomes out of place. He shouldn’t be the supermodel of the trailer park. It would have been better to just dress down prettier people, so Matt Dillon didn’t look so silly.
Naomi Watts does a good job playing the part. This is the film that made me realize that I might actually like Naomi Watts in anything. She navigates a rather mediocre movie much better. Norman Reedus is good as the creepy ex. The movie does creep along, and feels a little slow. I understand why this didn’t get more attention. It’s an alright movie, and alright indie film have a hard time gaining traction.
FINAL GRADE: C+
