Far out! 2015 seems to be the year of the "Far" movies. "Far Cry", "Far From the Madding Crowd", "Far Off", "Far Out Far In", "Far Piece", "Everything is Beautiful Far Away", "Far Western", "How Far", "Into a Far Country", "Near and Far", and then, just plain old "Far" – all listed as 2015 releases. Then, of course, we could also include a little December movie that promises to take us back to "a galaxy far, far away". Lastly, not to be outdone, is the movie that thinks the word "far" is so nice, they used it twice – "Far Too Far" (NR, 1:57).
Linda (Brandi Wethington) is a single mom who is working as a waitress in a diner and a cashier in a convenience store to support herself and her 9-year-old daughter, who she calls Bug (Abbey Hunt). As busy as she is, Linda basically has only two friends: Mrs. Tufly (Joanne Hammes), the nice old lady in the apartment across the hall who watches Bug when Linda is at work, and Connie (Marcella Hower), another waitress at the diner. Connie tells Linda that she has to get out of the apartment and have some fun, so she insists that Linda come with her to a house party and comes to pick her up, babysitter in tow. Linda is uncomfortable at the party, but Connie drags her to more parties at the same house. The reason that there are so many parties at this particular house is that there's a drug dealer named Trip (Rick Martinez) "working" out of the garage.
Trip gets Linda to try some marijuana, and it's all downhill from there. Like any self-respecting drug dealer, Trip knows how to get Linda hooked. He uses the pot as a gateway drug and then gives Linda some free samples of methamphetamine. Linda very quickly finds herself on the slippery slope of habitual drug use. She starts snorting meth, shooting it up and smoking it. She starts missing work, either to sleep off her latest high or to run off with her new "friends" and get high all over again. Linda is also neglecting Bug – and not taking care of herself very well either. Her appearance becomes haggard; she's jittery and irritable and even starts verbally abusing those around her. We see the changes in Linda reflected in the eyes of Mrs. Tufly and Ben (Ben Nolte), a nice guy who she met at that first party and then runs into a few months later in a convenience store.
As Linda's life goes from bad to worse, we see another story unfold, that of social worker Jim Burgess (Chris Overson) and his co-worker, Samantha (Tylor Gray). Jim's job has taken such a toll on him over the years that he has trouble sleeping, but he still cares deeply about helping people. His loving, forgiving approach to people is very different from the idealistic and hot-tempered Samantha, who Jim is trying to mentor. As Jim and Samantha work their way through their case load, it's obvious that they're going to cross paths with Linda sooner or later. Speeding her towards that fateful meeting is Luci (Brad Monclova), the man who Linda starts seeing. We see them have sex, but the real focus of the relationship is the meth that Luci and his business partner, Bigwig (Daniel Cabrera) can help her get. When Luci begins demanding more from Linda for the drugs he's supplying her, she's forced into a heart wrenching situation from which there may be no coming back.
"Far Too Far" shows the hard truths of what drug addiction does to individuals and families, but it doesn't do it very well. Most of the movie is poorly shot, poorly acted, poorly written and just plain boring. The story, and overall quality of the film, both pick up significantly towards its powerful and surprising ending, but to get there you have to sit through actors doing their first film (and it shows), dialog that often doesn't sound like real people talk, characters' actions that don't make sense and cinematography and music that has the feel of a 1970s after school special.
The film editing is good (especially toward the end), but this movie would have benefited greatly from a better edited script and editing out about 20 minutes from the film itself. This is writer/director Justin Hunt's first fully-scripted feature film after several documentaries, some of which dealt with the destructive effects of meth. Hunt definitely seems well-intentioned with this film, but his inexperience (and that of his cast and crew) distract badly from what is a good story and an excellent third act. All things considered, "Far Too Far" is not only a good title for this film, but a good description of my drive to see it. "C-"
Linda (Brandi Wethington) is a single mom who is working as a waitress in a diner and a cashier in a convenience store to support herself and her 9-year-old daughter, who she calls Bug (Abbey Hunt). As busy as she is, Linda basically has only two friends: Mrs. Tufly (Joanne Hammes), the nice old lady in the apartment across the hall who watches Bug when Linda is at work, and Connie (Marcella Hower), another waitress at the diner. Connie tells Linda that she has to get out of the apartment and have some fun, so she insists that Linda come with her to a house party and comes to pick her up, babysitter in tow. Linda is uncomfortable at the party, but Connie drags her to more parties at the same house. The reason that there are so many parties at this particular house is that there's a drug dealer named Trip (Rick Martinez) "working" out of the garage.
Trip gets Linda to try some marijuana, and it's all downhill from there. Like any self-respecting drug dealer, Trip knows how to get Linda hooked. He uses the pot as a gateway drug and then gives Linda some free samples of methamphetamine. Linda very quickly finds herself on the slippery slope of habitual drug use. She starts snorting meth, shooting it up and smoking it. She starts missing work, either to sleep off her latest high or to run off with her new "friends" and get high all over again. Linda is also neglecting Bug – and not taking care of herself very well either. Her appearance becomes haggard; she's jittery and irritable and even starts verbally abusing those around her. We see the changes in Linda reflected in the eyes of Mrs. Tufly and Ben (Ben Nolte), a nice guy who she met at that first party and then runs into a few months later in a convenience store.
As Linda's life goes from bad to worse, we see another story unfold, that of social worker Jim Burgess (Chris Overson) and his co-worker, Samantha (Tylor Gray). Jim's job has taken such a toll on him over the years that he has trouble sleeping, but he still cares deeply about helping people. His loving, forgiving approach to people is very different from the idealistic and hot-tempered Samantha, who Jim is trying to mentor. As Jim and Samantha work their way through their case load, it's obvious that they're going to cross paths with Linda sooner or later. Speeding her towards that fateful meeting is Luci (Brad Monclova), the man who Linda starts seeing. We see them have sex, but the real focus of the relationship is the meth that Luci and his business partner, Bigwig (Daniel Cabrera) can help her get. When Luci begins demanding more from Linda for the drugs he's supplying her, she's forced into a heart wrenching situation from which there may be no coming back.
"Far Too Far" shows the hard truths of what drug addiction does to individuals and families, but it doesn't do it very well. Most of the movie is poorly shot, poorly acted, poorly written and just plain boring. The story, and overall quality of the film, both pick up significantly towards its powerful and surprising ending, but to get there you have to sit through actors doing their first film (and it shows), dialog that often doesn't sound like real people talk, characters' actions that don't make sense and cinematography and music that has the feel of a 1970s after school special.
The film editing is good (especially toward the end), but this movie would have benefited greatly from a better edited script and editing out about 20 minutes from the film itself. This is writer/director Justin Hunt's first fully-scripted feature film after several documentaries, some of which dealt with the destructive effects of meth. Hunt definitely seems well-intentioned with this film, but his inexperience (and that of his cast and crew) distract badly from what is a good story and an excellent third act. All things considered, "Far Too Far" is not only a good title for this film, but a good description of my drive to see it. "C-"