People Hold On (2015) User Reviews

And eventually must let go!

[cekadah · 6/10 · 13 June 2016]

Director: Michael Seater and Writer: Paula Brancati have created an engaging story of six old friends getting together for their annual cabin in the woods by the lake getaway for food, frolicking, and fun. So at movies opening we know six of these people have a past together only this time two strangers are thrown into the mix by two of the usual's. A very young girlfriend of one of the boys and a new boyfriend of one of the girls.

With six old friends and two new 'unknowns' staying all together in the cabin soon opens fractures in their friendship and emotions begin to come to the surface. A test of wills and jealously begins to arise. Their longtime friendship begins to dissolve and who will side with who becomes the question. (It's like a game of volleyball, eventually there is a goof-up and tempers get raw.)

I found this story to be of great interest due to the mix of personalities and the unknown level of loyalty to each other between the old friends. Just how this story will end becomes the question. And that is where the director and writer completely fail in this story. The ending actually made little sense to the rest of the story. Suddenly out of nowhere the plot becomes a mystery of disappearing friends - is something evil afoot in the woods? Or did the writer and director use the missing persons as symbolism for the end of friendship? What? In life friendships come and go, some last others are brief, each person has their own life and sooner or later it takes different direction.

What started as a very interesting mix of people just falls flat at movies end.

An excellent, often moving and sometimes extremely funny comedy-drama

[GusF · 10/10 · 31 May 2016]

Michael Seater's feature film directorial debut, this is an excellent, often moving and sometimes extremely funny comedy-drama. The plot concerns six 27-year-old high school friends reuniting for their ninth annual weekend of booze, drugs and nostalgia in the Canadian countryside. On this occasion, they are joined by two "outsiders." In some respects, it reminded me of "Peter's Friends" (albeit for a slightly younger set) but it was far, far less depressing than that film. The script by Seater and Paula Brancati is extremely well written and represents a very interesting exploration of group dynamics. I think the film's message is basically that relationships - platonic or romantic, between men or women - are inherently complicated. Tensions and old resentments have a nasty habit of rising to the surface and that is certainly seen here. While the characters could have easily been walking clichés, they always seem like real people. The dialogue has a very naturalistic quality to it and there is a great deal of raw emotion involved and I think that the film really speaks to the twentysomething generation. None of the characters are given surnames and I took this as being representative of the fact that everyone can relate to one or more of them to some degree.

With the exception of one development towards the end which seems a little contrived, there is not a false note in the extremely well- observed script. One of my favourite lines is, "30 is when you figure it out that you're never going to figure it out." Neither Seater nor Brancati have reached that milestone yet but they clearly have figured that out already. Personally speaking, I just turned 29 last week and I am not expecting a "Logan's Run"-esque red light in my palm to start flashing on my 30th birthday and provide me with all the answers (or inform the Sandmen that my time is up, for that matter). As a director, Seater handles the material with a great deal of skill and flare.

The film features a cast of only eight (thankfully very good) actors but it nevertheless says a great deal about human nature. Brancati herself probably gives the best performance as Robin, who is still struggling to come to terms with her breakup with her longtime boyfriend Dan, played by Ali Mukadam, two years earlier. Dan is another member of the old high school gang and, since she skipped the last get-together, this is the first time that they have seen each other since she rejected his proposal, though they speak via social media every so often. As you can imagine, the situation is awkward for all considered. It is not helped by the fact that Dan has brought along a cool, confident 19-year-old installation artist named Marley, played by Chloe Rose, whom he has only been dating for two weeks. However, Robin has her own ideas about why he has brought Marley. Crucially, Brancati and Mukadam have great chemistry and their scenes together are suitably tense and occasionally even gut-wrenching since Dan and Robin are essentially star-crossed lovers.

Ashley Leggat is very strong as the kind, confident Julia who is enjoying great success as a newscaster and has recently gotten engaged to Darren. Her fiancé, played by Mazin Elsadig, is a very straitlaced, conservative 33-year-old who is pretty shocked to learn of Julia's adventurous, experimental past. Katie Boland excels as the deeply insecure Alycia who is not happy with her life in large part because she judges it according to other people's standards. As such, she is very resentful of Julia's success and subjects her to numerous dirty looks and bitchy comments over the course of the weekend. Alycia's Grade 9 boyfriend Freddy, played by Jonathan Malen, is sweet and fairly level-headed. However, he is quite insecure himself, albeit not to the same extent as Alycia with whom he has been madly in love since they were young teenagers. Robin serves as a confidant for both of her female friends but she never chooses sides or insults one when speaking to the other.

Noah Reid is excellent as Matthew, the joker in the pack who does not take life seriously, even when he should. In many respects, he is lagging behind his friends as he has not really grown up since high school. He drifts through life, going from one unfulfilling, deathly boring job to another with no plan of any kind. Matt and Julia likewise dated in high school but there was no drama after they broke up and their relationship has since evolved into more of a sibling bond. Since this is arguably the most straightforward relationship in the film, it is not given a huge amount of screen time but it is very sweet. The quality of the acting and the writing means that even the relationships which are not explored in as much detail as the others seem real as opposed to merely being an afterthought, which might have been the case in a lesser film.

Overall, this is a first rate debut film for BrancSeater Productions. I have been a fan of Seater's acting since he starred in "The Zack Files" 15 years ago and I think that he has a very bright future ahead of him as a writer-director. I am already looking forward to his and Brancati's next film "Sadie's Last Days on Earth". I hope that Seater eventually appears in one of his own films because he's a very talented, charismatic actor.