Written and directed by Bradley Grant Smith
Starring Baize Buzan, Allison Torem, Tim Hopper, Austin Pendleton
1 hour 36 minutes
Unrated - language, adult themes

by Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer

Our Father is a small, heartfelt and at times funny film. It starts with an unexpected, but not tragic, death. It hits Beta (Baize Buzan) while her life is already in turmoil. She’s living in her car after a bad breakup, sneaking into her office job to wash up and get ready before work. She works with obnoxious personalities, but it’s her last day, and soon she will be leaving Chicago for grad school in Connecticut. Then, in advance of a dinner with her father and Beta’s younger sister, Zelda (Allison Torem), Beta receives a call that her father committed suicide.

Where Beta is reserved and serious, Zelda is outrageous. Beta dresses modestly and plainly. Zelda’s outfits are loud and bright. She wears a miniskirt, a lacey pastel crop top with a low cut, and strawberry pins on each shoulder. Zelda is unstable, fighting a deep depression which she hides behind jokes. “I feel like I’m trespassing by being alive,” Zelda confesses. They’re reunited once their father dies and they learn about an estranged uncle Jerry, who is mentioned in their dad’s will. In need of a project to redirect the feelings from their loss, the sisters team up determined to find Jerry.

Neither woman feels tied to any traditional family anymore. Dad is gone, mom walked out a long time ago, and they don’t like dad’s bitter elderly ex-girlfriend Jane (Ann Whitney) or her pervy grown sons who ogle Zelda’s breasts. Our Father is one of those indie films that drives people on an ultimately fruitless mission. Much of the film’s humor comes from Zelda, whose quips and vulgarity break the tension. When a waiter flirts with Beta, Zelda remarks that he’s so cute he “makes me want to twist his dick off and smash it.” When they hear that Jane has fallen out of bed, Zelda says, “Who falls out of bed past the age of five? Did she make a poop-dee-doo?” Beta, as the somber sister, is a less engaging character. Although we’re taken into her world a bit when she has an awkward run-in with her bitter ex, the film largely keeps her at arm’s length. There is an unpredictability to what Zelda will say next, which makes her more interesting to watch. She cuts herself to cope. It’s not melodramatic, and we don’t follow Zelda’s path to healing. It’s presented matter-of-factly.

Our Father is the writing and directorial debut of Bradley Grant Smith, an actor who most recently appeared in Saint Frances. Smith’s two leads are relative newcomers with about a half a dozen credits each. Torem is the stronger actor, but there is still a lack of flow between these two performers. Neither of them has any real reaction to their dad’s death. We’re spared the melodrama, but given little else. Their line delivery is, at times, a bit awkward and stilted. These actresses never act like siblings, never speak to each other as though they have any shared stories. It’s thoughtful casting that when the girls do meet Jerry, he’s portrayed by character actor Austin Pendleton, who has been acting consistently since the late 1960s (his credits include The Muppet Movie and My Cousin Vinny). It is a bittersweet scene, shot wonderfully at night at the bench of a piano, city lights glowing through sheer drapes. Both performers here are in their element and play well off each other. Beta is desperate for understanding and human connection, while Jerry is lost in his own religious rhetoric. Our Father is about forging family connections, but it’s a little underwritten and shaky on execution.