Review: Coasting (2010)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                              COASTING
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: This is a simple little story in a low-budget
     but nicely turned-out film.  Two people in unsatisfying
     and incompatible relationships find each other and are
     attracted.  There is just one little problem...  The
     dialog is entertaining, but where the film is going and
     that there will be a problem is predictable (though
     perhaps not what the obstacle is).  Michael P. Noens
     directs and co-writes an unpretentious story of slightly
     frustrated love.  Jonathan C. Legat and Stephanie Wyatt
     are appealing as the young couple.  Rating: low +2
     (-4 to +4) or 7/10

Wes (played by Jonathan C. Legat) is in a job that doesn't quite
suit him and has a fiancee who does not quite fit him.  He has
returned to Stillwater, Illinois, for the funeral of his brother's
girl friend.  Lauren (Stephanie Wyatt) has a boy friend she is not
quite compatible with.  She has come to Stillwater to photograph
the funeral of her friend.  Both go to the wake and noticed each
other.  That evening in the hotel bar they strike up a
conversation.  A joke or two passed between them and soon they are
playing pool together and enjoying each other.  They hit it off,
but then go their separate ways.  Neither can forget that they met.
Wes goes back to his work at an employment agency that seems to
service mostly welfare recipients who do not really want a job.
Both have partners who just do not satisfy them.  Neither can
forget the other.  Eventually they know that this thing was meant
to be.  Each is willing to throw over his/her current partner, but
there is one more twist that fate is to throw in their path.

The structure of the early parts of the film is familiar.  We have
one long sequence of the couple's "meet cute" in a bar with flashes
outward of each's unsatisfying careers and relationships, all
calculated to show that the two were just going nowhere and to pull
the viewer into the new relationship.  One place where the script
could be stronger is in the dialog, which is of some interest but
somehow never establishes the couple's compatibility on an
emotional level.  We see that they smile at each other and that
there is some physical attraction, but there is no reason to feel
that this relationship will be any stronger than the relationships
the two had previously.  Somehow we would like something stronger
than smiles to demonstrate the bond that these two might be able to
form.  In the recent LAST CHANCE HARVEY the Dustin Hoffman and Emma
Thompson characters seem to be able to mesh on a higher level than
just the physical.  The same is true of the couple in BEFORE
SUNRISE.  Each has something beyond the physical to offer the
other.  The script seems to assume that is they are attracted
sexually that is the basis for a strong rapport.

This could be a sort of "love is enough" sort of romance, but once
we establish that that sort of attraction did not last in each
person's previous relationships--relationships that probably
started just as amicably as the new one--we need some evidence that
the new bond will not just coast downhill the same way.  Later in
the film we see an obstacle to the relationship and we want to feel
that the obstacle is worth overcoming, but it will not be if they
allow the new relationship to stagnate like their previous ones.

In a film from a small production company, writing is extremely
important.  It may be optimistic to hope for strong writing in a
tiny $10,000 production from the young company CNGM Pictures, but
the company cannot match the majors with visuals or with star
power.  Writing is the one area where small companies can afford to
compete with the major studios and production companies.  This is a
light enjoyable souffle of a film whose main point cannot be
discussed here.  It entertains for 90 minutes without having much
lasting impact.  I rate it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Possible spoiler: while this film may have an interesting idea,
John Sayles got there first and much more effectively in one of his
best films.  But then John Sayles is John Sayles.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1262876/>



					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2010 Mark R. Leeper