Angels Crest (reviewed on my Tumblr back in November)

Sometime ago while looking over Thomas Dekker’s IMDB page I came across a movie titled Angels Crest. The plot seemed interesting and the fact that two of my favorite actors, Thomas Dekker and Jeremy Piven, were in it only made me want to see it even more. After what feels like forever, the film was finally released over I-Tunes and On Demand (it’s still waiting theatrical release) and a few hours ago I found myself clicking on the buy icon on my television and preparing myself to watch.

First off I want to say that I came into this movie with high expectations. The trailers I had seen online were beautiful and tugged at my emotions and let me tell you the movie only did this further. For those of you who don’t know much about Angels Crest, it’s about a young father, Ethan Denton (Thomas Dekker), who suffers the loss of his son after a moment of carelessness and how the action affects him, the boy’s mother and the small town that they live in.

The script was written by Catherine Trieschmann and directed by Gaby Dellal, both of which did great jobs. The script was beautifully written (especially the scenes with Ethan and his best friend, and the ones with Cindy) and some of the best and most powerful moments came when there was no dialogue at all. Two scenes that did this were when Ethan is walking down to the cell and sits there for a few seconds before one of the officers speaks, and later in the film when he walks out of the house, removing his clothes and lays down curled up in the snow. In an overall review of the movie there wasn’t much I didn’t like about it, though I was wondering from time to time why I was watching certain scenes with the people that lived in town, and what significance they actually had to the story. The movie is based on a novel by Leslie Schwartz though, so maybe reading it would help me understand more/clear up some things and why these side stories were there/important.

The supporting cast for the film includes Jeremy Piven, Kate Walsh, Mira Sorvino, Elizabeth McGovern, and Joseph Morgan, who all did amazing jobs bringing their characters to life. As someone who watched Entourage from season one and fell in love with Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold it was nice to see him in a different kind of role, and even outside of Entourage it’s been rare that he has been in anything dramatic. After seeing this movie though I think that he needs to start doing more. In the film he plays the part of the D.A that’s prosecuting Ethan and had lost his own child prior to the events of the film, something I wish they would have gone further into. He plays that line between the father that understands what Ethan is going through and the D.A that needs to collect information/evidence that could put him away for negligence fairly well.

The contrast between the way that Nate’s mother, Cindy, and father, Ethan, handle his death is executed beautifully by the films two main actors, Lily Collins and Thomas Dekker.

Lily Collins plays Cindy, Nate’s mother who is an alcoholic and blames Ethan for Nate’s death. At the search party the sheriff tells her that if she’s going to be out there she at least needs a coat, but instead of going to get one she goes out and buys beer. Through out the film she slips further and further into her alcoholism, the only way she knows how to cope. Lily does a wonderful job portraying the cold, and at times bitchy attitude that Cindy has towards people, a result of her alcoholism no doubt, but her shining moment comes when she starts to break down in front of her mother. The first time you really see her have an emotion other than anger when it comes to losing Nate. It’s here I first saw her feeling that loss and focusing on that feeling rather than how much she blamed/hated Ethan. I haven’t seen many of her movies (other than Wolverine Origins) but I think I need to search Netflix for more.

Finally I come to Thomas Dekker who plays the part of Ethan Denton. While it was important for the film’s supporting characters and the part of Cindy to be cast well, it would have been for nothing had this part not been cast right, and I’m not sure anyone could have pulled it off any better than Thomas did. From the start I felt myself drawn into the life of his character and his son Nate (Ameko Eks Mass Carroll). The interaction between the two is, in lack of a better word, adorable as well as genuine, especially coming from Thomas who before now had never really worked with a young kid (at least not in anything else I’ve seen him in.) 
Every emotion that Ethan felt, whether it was the desperation to find his son, the anguish when he found him, the guilt he felt, or anything in between I felt like I was connecting with and was experiencing myself (despite never having been in a similar situation before.) I rarely cry in movies, but there were several times I found myself fighting back tears due to this young man’s performance and here he truly proves that he is one of the best young actors of our time. I have been watching Thomas since the Honey I Shrunk the Kids tv series came on, and while I love most of the projects he’s been a part of I have never been more proud to call myself a Thomas Dekker fan

4 out of 5 stars