Dandelion

Tagline: Everything begins somewhere. 

So I watched this movie because Netflix recommended this movie for me as an indie drama about youth and relationships. It is a 2004 film from director Mark Milgard and won the awards for best cinematography and best feature at the River Run Film Festival as well as being nominated for a Spirit Award for best cinematography. I went in expecting a nice beautiful emotional movie and that's pretty much exactly what I got.

This movie stars Vincent Kartheiser as 16 year old Mason who lives in a rural country farmtown and spends his days trying to stay out of trouble and deal with his emotional father who is running for public office. Soon he meets Danny who moves into the neighborhood, played by Taryn Manning, and their friendship changes his life as it is tested when Danny is wrongly accused of a crime which consumes valuable time from his life.

The plot is simple and believable and it is the characters that fill up the movie. They are very well written and complex. Each has their flaws, but you find yourself empathizing with each and through their actions we learn what true sacrifice and love is. It's a beautiful poignant tale that I think will transcend to everyone. The dialogue was endearing and believable.

The cinematography awards were right on target with this movie, it is simply beautiful. Tim Orr, director of cinematography, was able to capture the beautiful rolling hills and fields which added to the ton of the movie. Any movie that will spend several hundred frames to watch a dandelion blowing in the wind and other symbolic images is ok in my book, in contrast to those major studio productions whose number one rule is every frame must advance the plot. There was time spent in this movie on the beautiful aspects of the story and it didn't feel like a race to the end like in some movies. It was a nice beautiful ride. The 35mm film and soft filters made every frame so nice to watch. The soundtrack and score was also subtle and soft enough to add to the feel of the movie as well.

The performances were endearing and everyone really did a great job in this movie. Kartheiser was genuine and kept me interested throughout the story. His parents also gave riveting dynamic performances, played by Arliss Howard and Mare Winingham.  Taryn Manning played a more serious side I haven't seen her do before and  I think she was the right choice for the movie. Near the end, there were some great emotional scenes, but it was the movie as a whole that worked together with these good performances.

I was happily surprised with this movie. It was definitely a slow beautiful story about relationships and sacrifice. I would recommend to anyone who likes to sit back and watch a subtle emotional genuine story. The cinematography was truly beautiful and I wish more movies could take note. "Sometimes I think that love is something people create to make themselves feel better" -- Dandelion.