I’ve been told by family and friends, that I’m an onion. Since I don’t have a problem with chronic halitosis, I’m assuming they mean that I have many layers. It’s true. There are many sides to Matthew Scott Trueblood. To people who know me, I’m funny. To people I like, I’m laid back. To people I really like (if you know what I mean), I’m a stumbling, bumbling ass. But beyond the public phases of my persona, I am, indeed a complex guy. I’m the same at the core, mind you, but I can be a complete goofball one minute while at other times be reflective and quite deep. The Greatest really brings out that strong reflective nature and depth.
Put simply, I cried like a baby on more than one occasion during this very good movie. The Greatest is about a family dealing with the untimely death of their teenage son. However, he’s left something behind: a pregnant girlfriend, who comes to live with the family. That sets the stage.
Ultimately, this movie is about death and coping. I’ve had to deal with both more than I care to think about. I experienced myself…my own dealing with death…in each of the four main characters. The dad, Allen (Pierce Brosnan), the mom, Grace (Susan Sarandon), the brother (Johnny Simmons) and the girlfriend, Rose (Carey Mullligan) make up the cast. Each is fighting the circle of life in their own way while trying to come to terms with the loss of young Bennett Brewer (Aaron Johnson).
Dad is coping by, well, by not coping. He doesn’t deal with it at all. Mom is all kinds of messed up and little brother turns to any and all measures of escape (his escape of choice is drugs). Meanwhile, Rose is just trying to learn more about the father of her baby amidst the storm.
This movie is tenaciously compelling. Each of the four main cast members deliver powerful performances as their characters are trying to find there way and come to grips with what has been ripped from them so prematurely. Losing a son, a brother, a boyfriend is the definition of pain. Coping with the death of a loved one is a process for all humans. We see that process unfold through each of the four characters.
I give it 4-stars. This movie goes somewhere. It takes you to the darkened depths of coping with death—something that no human truly understands. The Greatest simply manages to light a match. It provides that flicker of light so desparately needed in an otherwise dark tunnel.
Yes, I did have some problems with certain aspects of the story. Several elements just didn’t seem plausible. Utimately, those elements didn’t bother me because they didn’t really detract from the foundation of what the movie was trying to get across. In other words, it was such an emotionally compelling watch, that I didn’t get caught up in those implausible dots left gapingly unconnected.
If you want action…comedy or even a light drama…keep on walking Blockbuster’s aisles. If you want something that is profoundly thought-provoking, with layers of its own…well, check out The Greatest. After all, sometimes a flicker of light is all you really need to peel that onion.
Thanks for reading.
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