esrosedotblog

VIET VET

Today's Best Film was tough to watch.

First because it is so gut wrenching in its honesty about the plight of vets with post traumatic stress syndrome; unflinching would be a better term.

Then, tough to watch because of its cobbled up Hollywood ending. I didn't like the way they did that.

The film is Distant Thunder (1988) and the performance is by John Lithgow.

Lithgow exudes sorrow and pain. His reunion with a lost son is a long tough road. It is a great performance. Too bad that here and there the over-the-top performances of some of the supporters are distracting.

Ralph Macchio is the son who is supposed to be 18 but even accounting for Macchio's sort of pear shaped nerdiness he is unconvincing at that age. Maybe 15? Sorry to snipe at this. He does a good job on the tense stuff but he is no match for Lithgow in the more relaxed scenes. He looks like he was with a sight seeing group and wandered onto the set.

This is a 3 out of Netflix5.

I was glued to the story and then it sort of let me go at the end.