When people feel they’ve been wronged by
another/others, they inevitably wish for someone to make amends; that is
reparation. When Bob (Menchaca) is
discharged from the Air Force, he seems to have PTSD and a three-year memory
gap. One day, when Lucy (Newcomb)
comes across him wandering down a road she stops to give him a ride. After teasing flirtations and Lucy’s
realization that he is a good—albeit damaged—man, they marry and have a child,
Charlotte (Thomas). Everything
seems to be working out well until a stranger (Huertas) suddenly appears on a
motorcycle. Jerome has an
investment in uncovering Bob’s memory, but we’re not told why until the end of
the film.
A kind of occult theme running through the
story is Charlotte’s uncanny ability to draw pictures that trigger her father’s
memories. These drawings are precipitated
by nightmares that seem to give her information about Bob. For instance, without being introduced
to him, she knows the stranger’s name is Jerome, and she is left with the sense
that he is dangerous. Lucy is
repelled by him altogether, and is always trying to get rid of him. But something in Bob gives him pause in
sending the man away.
A mysterious figure, a young boy, appears to
Bob throughout the story, giving him pep talks and reassuring him. This also seems to tie in with the
occult. The child is incorporated
into another character toward the end, and even merged by Bob with Charlotte
when he is in a panic state, all of which makes the boy’s identity rather
confusing.
Through flashbacks, we piece together the
relationship between Bob and Jerome, the importance of a third figure, a
Colonel Atreus, the source of the conflict between Bob and Jerome, and the
nature of the information Jerome so desperately pursues.
The film is good in leading us up to this point
and keeping us engaged in the mystery.
Menchaca is very fine at portraying the slightly mystified veteran who
is not the kind to ruminate about his past and seek insight and
information. He appears to have
accepted the memory gap so that it is troubling only at times. Nor does it bother his wife Lucy very
much—she thinks he is fine the way he is and she only has emotional outbursts
toward Jerome, aptly played as a threatening figure by Kellar.
The story in Reparation does not always mesh together logically and sometimes
seems internally contradictory, but it is interesting and mysterious enough to
hold the viewer’s attention. It’s
a small independent film by first-time director Kyle Ham and co-written by him and
Steve Timm. It is being screened
at film festivals, including the Houston Cinema Arts Festival where I saw it.
A mystery about an Air Force veteran
with a three-year memory gap.
Grade: C By Donna
R. Copeland
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