Palm Trees and Power Lines
**Seen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
It’s important to say, right off the bat, that some content in this exceptional drama has the potential to trigger or upset people. A big part of why it’s so effective, however, is because co-writer/director Jamie Dack doesn’t flinch from making us uncomfortable with what we’re watching, and she doesn’t exploit her characters. What she does do is empathize with them, even if that leads to a final scene as troubling as it is logical.
Lea (Lily McInerny) is on summer vacation, and she’s basically spending her days laying around with her best friend (Auden Thornton), watching her mother (Gretchen Mol) hook up with different guys on a regular basis, and spending time with friends. One night, they dine and dash, and Lea is caught by the chef when another patron, Tom (Jonathan Tucker), comes to her aide. He makes sure she gets home safe, and they immediately strike a bond. Him being twice her age is no issue to her; in fact, it makes him all the more attractive to her. After all, he’s saying all the right things.
The screenplay by Dack and Audrey Findlay layers in the threads of this grooming period very carefully and subtly; when “Tom’s” questionability comes into focus in the film, it’s too late for an easy break for Lea- she’s basically in love with him. That the film doesn’t initially signal itself is such is part of what makes its delivery of the material so effective. There are times when we sometimes forget the age gap between the two, but it’s always there because one or the other will act in a way to remind you of it, or the power dynamic that is in the film between them. There are times where you wish for Lea to be more upfront with her mother or her friends, but she never is. Part of the film is as much about her being a young woman who’s still trying to figure herself out, and McInerny is terrific at conveying that, and of reminding us that she’s just a kid. On the other end, Tucker’s performance as Tom finds a decent balance between sinister and charismatic; even when his intentions are on full display, he’s always working the latter.
The third act of this film is what most people will take away from this film. This is where Dack really hits us hard, and it is as unsettling a series of scenes as any movie has put together. Not just the “payoff,” if you can call it that, but what happens afterwards. What we’re left with is not as optimistic as we’d like it to be. Hopefully, it’s just another path on Lea figuring herself out.
