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Excellent but underrated film

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Jon, a former high school football star returns home to the small fishing village of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He was an arrogant, useless jerk in high school, and returns a failed, arrogant, useless jerk.We start with layer upon layer of cliché. Will there be any evolution, or is this just another fouled up, self-regarding 'feel bad comedy'?Dave is back from Arizona to talk to old friends and catch up with his mother.Jon is trying to get into something new, perhaps writing. He arranges to quit his fishing job as soon as he can find a replacement. He's in two kinds of therapy.The obligatory drunken barroom and getting high scenes are just as boring as one might expect. Jon, Dave, and Sam are not any better at it than any one else.Sam has stayed in Fairhaven (as opposed to Jon and Dave), has gotten married, had a daughter, got a divorce, and dealt with the break up. Nobody seems to be any happier than anyone else.The funeral for Dave's father was nicely awkward.The ending was flat, rather like the rest of the film.Cinematography: 10/10 Exceptionally lovely shooting, especially the exteriors. Depth of field is shallow for the interiors to isolate the character to focus on, showing a nice level of control. Framing and color saturation are great.Sound: 8/10 Occasionally the music was blaring.Acting: 4/10 The performances are all too often from the 'smile, show how cool you are' school of non-involvement. Boring, non-engaging.Screenplay: 4/10 Stupid premise, bad execution, boring; not aided by immature actors.

This was a surprisingly good movie. I'm not going to try and write a "pro" review. I'm simply sharing my opinion, and I'm a person who has seen A LOT of movies, and has studied fine art...so:The cinematography is amazing. It's like the color version of The Night of the Hunter. I grew up in the Northeast on the water so it really hit home. It added a genuine romance to the homes and common sceneries you walk by everyday and never look at or imagine in the way it was presented in this film. It's almost like an old chair you have in your back yard that a photographer makes look like it belongs on the cover of a travel magazine. The story is pretty hard hitting and well told. That said, however, the characters take too long to blossom as well and suddenly it gets cut really short. In other words, just as I was starting to get into the story...it ended. So for me that was the downside. Otherwise this definitely gets a WATCH. It's quite good.

You know, it isn't easy to make a good movie. To begin with, I believe you need a good script. That is to say, in my mind at least, the story has to be complete. You can have great acting, great direction, great film making and yet, because of the script itself, it's literary values, the film isn't complete. The story isn't complete. That is the case with this movie. (Spoiler Alert) Two of three main characters are released, so to speak, from their torment. The third character, the one played by Messina: we don't really know what happens to him. He goes back into the oblivion. These are my film aesthetics: the viewers need to have the complete story. It's fine if a character doesn't come to terms with his life, but we want to know how. Messina's character has screwed up his life. He's run away from a tough situation with a woman he loved and he has refused to understand his parents. His girl has found another guy. His life has been emptied out. But the movie leaves him pretty much where it found him, except now he most likely knows he has screwed up. It's not enough. I obviously hate it when filmmakers leave things hanging. I really believe there's a laziness to it. If they can't complete the story they shouldn't make the film.

Watching FAIRHAVEN was everything I love about Tom O'Brian's theatrical plays come to life a million times over with all of the elements fitting together: lovely shots, poetic scenery, authentic acting, heartfelt pacing and musical score combined to remind me of what acting coach Wynn Handman would refer to as "a perfect pitch and tone". Tom's character was an endearing, curious, mysterious and fun protagonist. I understand what he means about Tom Brady! I love the story and how the film captures the way that we are all ever unraveling from, entwining in and learning from the events in our lives. We were riveted and while I knew it would be great, I was so excited and surprised by how great. My boyfriend watched in silence the whole time and when it was over he said, "that was impeccable… perfect". He said he loved it and wants to watch it again. We were both moved. I have been spending more time this past year in my hometown than I have spent in 26 years... I related so much to the relationships, internal and external landscapes and the heartbreaking beauty of watching life expand all of us no matter where we stay or travel to. Movie made with excellence!