EIGHTEEN (Richard Bell, Canada). 105 minutes. Wednesday (May 24), 5 pm. Isabel Bader. Rating: NN Rating: NN
Eighteen is a well-meaning, ambitious but unsuccessful look at family secrets.
Pip ( Paul Anthony ), grieving over his brother’s death, has left his well-to-do family to live on the streets of what looks like Vancouver. There, he meets a tenacious rent boy ( Clarence Sponagle ) and an aspiring social worker ( Carly Pope ) and listens to his sole 18th-birthday present, a tape of his grandfather (voiced by Ian McKellen ) recounting his wartime experiences when he was 18.
Director Richard Bell ‘s script is occasionally mawkish, and things aren’t helped by Bramwell Tovey ‘s overwrought score. The parallel war story doesn’t really pay off. But there are some fine moments and committed performances by the young actors.
