Movie Review: The Parts You Lose

The Parts You Lose ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Christopher Cantwell   

Written by: Darren Lemke.

Starring: Aaron Paul (Man), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Gail), Scoot McNairy (Ronnie), Danny Murphy (Wesley), Logan Creran (Mitch's Son), Angela Narth (Neighbor Theresa), Darcy Fehr (Mitch), Charlee Park (Amber), Stefanie Wiens (Sue).

 

There are a number of good performances in The Parts You Lose, and a nice chilly atmosphere – but they are both in search of a story worth telling. What we end up with is another story of a young boy, looking for a father figure to replace his own distant, angry father – and finding it in the wrong person. The twist here, if you can call it that, is that the 10-year-old boy at the heart of the story is deaf – but that doesn’t really add as much of a difference here as you would like. The film is well-made, and involving, without ever really finding its footing.

 

Wesley (Danny Murphy, who like the character he plays is deaf) has a loving, supportive mother – Gail (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) - and when his father is away for work, his home life seems pretty happy. He is picked on at school – but that’s about it. But when his father Ronnie (Scoot McNairy) arrives homes, things become more tense. His father won’t come right out and say it, but he really just wants Wesley to be “normal” – and gets frustrated because he isn’t. Wesley isn’t completely deaf – and Ronnie likes to pretend that he can hear just fine – when it is clear he cannot. There is a shootout at the local hotel in this small town – and it leaves several dead, and one of the criminals on the run. He hides out in a barn across the street from Wesley’s house – and Wesley finds him, and instead of turning him in – he starts to help him. This nameless criminal is played by Aaron Paul – and the two gradually start building a relationship. For Paul, there is no one else around – and he’s happy to have the kid there to talk to, play checkers with, and eventually give advice to. For Wesley, this is a man who actually seems to care for him – unlike his father.

 

And that’s pretty much it, in terms of story. We know where this going – Wesley and the man will bond, Ronnie will become increasingly angry and violent, and eventually the law is going to catch up with Paul one way or another. And all that happens. The film takes its time with its plot, which moves at a leisurely pace, and doesn’t have much action one way or another.

 

I will say that the performances here are quite good. McNairy, who is in seemingly every movie like this, is a one note angry dad – but it’s a role he plays well. Winstead, a gifted actress who I’ve long thought deserved better roles, is in fine form in the early scenes in the film, before the film kind of forgets about her. Paul resists the urge to make the criminal charming, or even all that likable – we in the audience never lose site of the fact that he is a violent man, and however nice he is being to Wesley, we also know that he won’t put the kids well-being above his own. And young Murphy is quite good in a role in which he says very little (meaning when he does vocalize something, it hits harder than it would otherwise) – and conveys a lot without seemingly doing very much.

 

And yet, you do kind of keep waiting for the movie to hit second gear – to get beyond its setup, an d it never quite does. What everything is established, it basically treads water waiting for the inevitable climax – which is the most predictable of the year. First time feature director Christopher Cantwell does a lot with his snow covered locations, and in getting the performances he does out of the actors – but he cannot really make much of the screenplay which doesn’t give anyone much to do.  The film is a mildly diverting indie – and the actors involved deserved better.