I'll start by talking about everything wrong with the film. Most noticeably, the lighting decisions are terrible. The bulk of the action takes place in one day, and it looks as if they shot everything in sequence over the course of two days, so that by the time it's supposed to be early afternoon in the film it is clearly approaching dusk outside. Then five minutes later it's clearly morning again, and it slowly gets dark once more. Then during the nighttime scenes there are moments that were obviously shot in sunlight. It's distractingly bad. It looks like they tried to do day for night but didn't know how. Additionally, the film is very ugly in that it looks like it was shot on a very low quality camera that has a look not fitting for the tone of the movie.
The cameraman did a good job with what he had to dork with, however. There are some fun shots in here and the editing is well done. The acting is hit-or-miss, with one or two miscast characters, but some of it is very good. The actor who plays the father in particular did an amazing job. Some of the best I've seen and very believable and a fun performance. Bang up job!
The story, while nothing spectacular, is surprisingly realistic given the budget and style of film. I was expecting something rather corny, but this feels pretty real. I believe it may have been inspired by one or two true stories, based on similarities to things I've read about.
The sound is not great but nothing to complain about. It's much better than in some of the very low budget films I've seen. But the lighting is some of the worst I've seen. The ending is very good.
