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Ballast

3/10

Stars: Micheal J SmithSJr, Tarra Riggs, JimMyron Ross, Ventress Bonner, Johnny McPhail

Director: Lance Hammer

Gloom and misery in the present-day Mississippi Delta. Slow, sombre and sonorous, the film focuses on a shattered black family unit in the bleak, muddy outskirts of a small, run-down town.

Two small houses stand on the acreage of one property. In one, Lawrence (Smith) shoots himself after the suicide of his twin brother, whose ex-wife Marlee (Riggs) lives in the other shack with her 12-year-old son James (Ross), who is already into drugs with the local teenage gang.

Surviving his suicide attempt, Lawrence finds himself held up with his own gun, stolen from him by James, who needs money for drugs. The brothers own a small convenience store, and Marlee fired from her menial job, determines to make a go of it, homeschooling James with Lawrence's help, to try to keep him out of trouble.

Lethargic and uninvolving, the film has lots of mumbled dialogue by its amateur players, with Ross a special culprit - you'd need subtitles to decipher some of his lines.

David Quinlan

USA 2008. UK Distributor: Axiom. Technicolor.
96 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 1, Swearing 2.

Review date: 16 Mar 2011