I was fortunate enough to attend two screenings at The Coronado Island Film Festival this year. Unfortunately, my 21-month-old daughter came down with a bug the weekend of the event. So, next year I will definitely be attending more screenings and parties. 

Still, I managed to make the short drive down to San Diego, and over the Coronado Bridge to the beautiful island for the Saturday night showings of Juniper and Women Talking. The screenings were at The Village Vintage Cinema theater. The festival was a wonderful event that hosted multiple parties and featured screenings of an impressive collection of both local and larger-scale, national productions. It featured speakers including actor Geena Davis and director Elegance Bratton.

For this article I want to focus on the first screening I saw, Juniper. It was a solid film, but in my humble opinion did not meet its potential. The subject matter was deep, but given the central topic it should have hit even deeper depths of emotion than it manages to do. 

It’s about a young man who must take care of his alcoholic grandmother as she ages and declines in health. It is a story about dealing with death. 

The Dialogue Was Lacking

The grandmother is a direct and brutally honest character. The young man is her grandson who seems to enjoy the way she acts and communicates. They had moments of great chemistry and connection, often bonding over their respective relationships with her son, his father.

The closer she gets to death the more we learn about the grandson and his central trauma. Through their conversations the story gets complex. While the narrative arc is interesting and almost got there, I thought the script wasn’t built out enough. The dialogue was very thin and there were side characters that were treated with what seemed like a quick brush over.   

For example the friends that came over had no character growth or connection. I wanted to know more about how they felt about grandma. They never show any of them talking with her but there are scenes with them talking with her in the background of something else going on. It really made me want to know what they were discussing. 

The same goes for another central character in the movie, the original caretaker. She is never given any true-to-life-dialogue. The same with the doctor. I realize they are side characters, but they are involved in this story and would be more of a stress point for our central characters.

Overall, the dialogue was just not believable to me. I was hungry for more conversations. 

I found myself thinking that the conversations were very short. Then again, maybe that is just true to life. It’s just the way that this family talks. But it’s not great storytelling even if we grant this assumption. 

There Were Interesting Themes but Didn’t Execute

For example, the presence of alcohol and the heavy consumption by all family members was interesting. It was a central theme but not a central focus, even though it seems it could be part of the main problem this family has. The characters drank a lot but never considered it a cause of any issues. I kind of liked this. 

The lack of dialogue didn’t allow the other themes to land. They presented themes such as dealing with family members' deaths, parent-children relationships, and self-destruction. The ideas were good but I just could never buy into the story behind the themes, thus, the themes lost their weight.

The movie was just OK. But it really made me think so it should be commended for that. Here’s a few raw notes I took right after the movie that I thought I would share:

• “No games” = Death is real

• I came into the movie late. The visual of the alcohol looking like lemon water was cool.

• It was insane how much that lady drinks.

• Things were glossed over. Things happened where I wanted to see a little more details. When the dad arrives, then they are just at the hospital. Who drove? Did they just not talk?

• I did feel like I understood the family dynamic and felt immersed.

• The sunset was gorgeous and meaningful. The foreshadowing of the mom and son having spent the night there before was cool. 

• Overall my rating: 6/10

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