Ballast

There are times when I just don't agree with critics and the people who give awards, and this was one of those times. Ballast is a stark look at the effects of a suicide in a small southern town on the survivors: the man's identical twin brother, his ex wife, and their son.

Some scenes had a lot of power, particularly those focusing on the son. And the characters are certainly solid and relatively complex. The landscape is so bleak that it gives an extremely depressing vibe, which is certainly okay as this is not supposed to be a happy movie in any way.

Other scenes, though, seem to fall a bit flat. Details of putting lives back together are well written and shot, but they don't move the plot along as well as the film needed. A major plot point was left unresolved, which is fine in some cases, but not when it's pushed so heavily in the first half, and not when that resolution could have been the strongest scene in the second half.

In the end it may come back to my personal dislike of straight drama. Yes, suffering and redemption is a core story to the human condition, but you can only see it so many times before you want it at least flavored with something new. And I didn't find anything new here.