This is an unsettling film. It's a multiple-character study of 4 families in the suburbs, all dealing with the fallout of a terrible accident. It is not a "look at how crazy those suburban-ites are" film. The pathos associated with suburban living are there, and the infidelities and teenage anxiety, but they have been stripped to their essence. The screenplay is harsh and unforgiving, at times baffling, but isn't life sometimes, and aren't people? Don't people go off the rails every now and then and act in inexplicable ways, creating chaos for miles? Yes, they do, and so they do here.
There are so many storylines happening all at once in this film, overlapping and interlocking, it would be impossible to list them all. Glenn Close is a family matriarch, chattering away to her comatose son (Joshua Jackson, a small-town rock star in flashbacks, and the film's anchor) while ignoring her daughter, who is very much in need of attention. Tomboy Kristin Stewart is Sam, caught in an unlucky situation with a grieving gardener. The genius Patricia Clarkson, Sam's mother, brings her signature spark to a frenzied role, and Dermot Mulroney shows his acting chops with a slow unraveling. Everyone is connected, everyone is affected, and nobody is really okay.
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