… Around

• Directed By: David Spaltro
• Written By: David Spaltro
• Country: USA
• Released: 2008
• Running Time: 104 Mins
• Drama, Reviews

After a surprisingly long pre-credits sequence, Doyle Simms (Ron Evans) travels to New York where he has been accepted onto a film studies course. The film then follows Doyle’s life as he follows – or attempts to follow – his four year course.

Doyle’s student years turn out to be quite eventful – to say the least – but the events are less important here than the characters. What writer/director David Spaltro is really interested in is the character of Doyle, the people he meets, the impact he has on them and how they affect him. And this is all brought to life beautifully.

Not only is Doyle a very well drawn and thoroughly rounded individual, but so are all of the characters he encounters. This gives the film a very real sense of lives being lived from which both humour and pathos naturally emerge. And there are some genuinely funny scenes in here, as well as some deeply moving ones, all of which work because the characters are so engaging.

Of course, a film that is as focussed on the characters as this one is heavily dependent on the performances of the cast and here they deliver in spades. Ron Evans is superb here and really does manage to convey the cynical bewilderment of Doyle as things fall apart around him. So much so that even when Doyle reaches his most self-centred and incompetent, Evans still manages to generate a huge amount of empathy for his character.

But far from carrying the film alone, Evans is superbly supported by the rest of the cast. There isn’t a single jarring performance and even the most minor of characters feel very real. That said, two people that do deserve a special mention here are Molly Ryman, who plays Allyson, the young woman who Doyle spends much of the film cautiously pursuing and Ron Brice who as Saul – both homeless and philosophical – brings some real depth to both the film and, eventually, to Doyle.

It’s not just the people that make this such an effective film, though, but also its sense of place. The film is shot on location in New York and Spaltro does have a feel for the city and its imagery. Beyond this, though, he also manages to bring together the locations, the characters and the cinematography in a manner that makes this story one that could only be told in – and about – New York.

At the end of the day, though … Around is a film about optimism, about taking chances and about dealing with the hand you’re given. It’s about the people you meet and the effect they have on your life – and the effect you have on theirs. It’s also one of the most powerfully moving and genuinely uplifting films I’ve seen in a very long time.

Tags: … Around