WHEN soft-spoken 15-year-old Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) kills his ex-girlfriend's mentally ill brother it shocks his community, affecting both his victim's family and his own.
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Arrested and imprisoned in a juvenile detention facility to await trial, Leland comes in contact with an aspiring writer and prison teacher, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle) who coaxes what happened out of the teenager who cannot remember committing the act. After all, he liked the victim.
Meanwhile, Leland's father - world-renowned author, Albert Fitzgerald (Kevin Spacey) - sees the chance of a career-making book and sets out to spin his son's desperate story into a best seller.
Intricately plotted with subtly defined characters and a suitably downbeat soundtrack, the film tackles teenage depression and the flip side of apparent middle class affluence with a rare subtlety.
Lena Olin, Martin Donovan and Sherilyn Fenn also feature.
See it at UCI (Sun, Tues only)
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