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Two years ago, Melanie (Stefania LaVie Owen) has lost her dad, which has been a crushing loss to her, but she's 17 now and ready to move on - also literally, as she's about to graduate from high school and plans to study at USC, which is halfway cross the country. But then one day her mother Dawn (Lili Taylor) claims their neighbour Brody is stalking them, and is trying to enter the house through the roof. At first, Melanie believes her mother - but when the police come and actually find evidence to the contrary, Melanie's faith in her mum starts to crumble. Especially since mum's claims get weirder and weirder, like that Brody has smuggled bees into their house or gives her headaches using some electrical device. Melanie has to come to terms with the fact that her mum's delusional, and tries to get both their minds of things, by hooking her mum up with Howard (Tom Papa), a guy she has found on a dating site, and hooking up herself with fellow student Daniel (Ian Nelson) - but both doesn't go as planned as Howard just can't handle Dawn's craziness, and Daniel proves to be an alcoholic who can't keep his hands off other girls when drunk. Eventually, Dawn chooses to move into her car to "keep Melanie safe", and after she and Melanie have a fall-out, she even chooses to live under a bridge, claiming it's the only place she's safe from Brody. But after some time apart, Dawn shows up for Melanie's graduation ceremony - which goes very well, until mum spots someone on the school's roof ...

A very touching movie about (living with) mental illness that's quite so effective because it doesn't try to hammer its message home with a sledgehammer, instead goes the subtle approach and packs its subject matter into an engaging story that also has touches of romance, coming-of-age story, and even traces of comedy. And a very solid cast really bring their characters to life and make them relatable, while a suitably unexcited directorial effort gives them and the story the necessary air to breathe. And what's perhaps most important, despite the film's very serious topic it stays entertaining throughout thanks to a certain lightness in the script as well as a good structure and a brisk enough narrative pace, all of which makes this a pretty good watch.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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