Off the Black

Director: James Ponsoldt
Cast: Nick Nolte, Trevor Morgan, Rosemarie De Witt, Sally Kirkland, Timothy HUtton
Genre: Drama 2006
Running time: 90 mins.
Rating:★★★

Ray Cooke (Nick Nolte), a disheveled, grumpy high school umpire who forms an unlikely friendship with troubled teenager Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan), after he catches him vandalizing his home. A straightforward exchange, if Dave repairs the damage, Ray won't call the cops. It becomes an ever increasingly personal relationship and enables Dave to cope with his own distant father (Timothy Hutton). As they grow more dependent on each other, Ray asks Dave to go to his 40th high school reunion and pretend to be his son, a benevolent act of deception that winds up opening unexpected dimensions in the two men.

The fear of looking back on your life and feeling like it didn't amount to anything. That life couldn't get much worse, so you might as well dwell in the misery and let it swallow you up. What other choice do you have? To give the illusion, as well as attempting to lie to oneself, that you are. Why attempt to strive for a future? Especially, when your father or son is somewhat estranged. In a strange way, Ray (Nick Nolte) and Dave (Trevor Morgan) have this in common. The bond they form leading up to Ray's reunion and during, allow them to help each other deal with all of the skeletons in their closet and inner demons. A relationship that is probably the steadiest one that either of them will ever know. But is it enough, to save or revive them from their misery? To look outside of themselves?

The cinematography allows the audience to feel that they are just a fly on the wall, witnessing the struggle these two characters have with their own lives. The soundtrack is a little hokey, trying too hard to be a feel-good movie. My eyes felt like they were going to fall out of their socket with how hillbilly and torturous the choice of music was. The magnificent performances by both Nick Nolte and Trevor Morgan. The storyline felt a little cut short and underdeveloped, but the two actors made up for that