Virginia Minnesota

This is primarily a road movie, about two young women who were in the same home for troubled teens years before. Now they are called upon to attend the reading of the will of the woman had run the home -- but that is just a pretext for these two to meet and finally deal with their mutual issues from the past.

The movie is set in and around scenic Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Tremendously entertaining !! Characters you can endear yourself to, with a story to match. As a bonus, almost a highlight reel of Minnesota scenery. Anxious to see lots more from Daniel Stine and company !!!

Daniel Stine is a great storyteller who weaves a marvelous tale of mystery, comedy and reflection featuring my favorite imaginary friend, Mister. The girls, Aurora Perrineau and Rachel Hendix bring the right amount of fun and regret to their characters while remind us of how a single event can change us profoundly while creating an unbreakable bond between friends who over time drift apart.

The feature film debut of actor/filmmaker Daniel Stine, Virginia Minnesota is an arthouse dramedy not dissimilar in tone to genre heavy-hitters such as Garden State and Little Miss Sunshine and while its low-key and humanly centric leaves a little to be desired, Stine has crafted a film that's easy to enjoy and suggests the budding filmmaker is one to keep a close eye on moving forward.

Focusing its attention on Aurora Perrineau's and Rachel Hendrix's long-term friends Addison and Lyle, mid-20 year old girls who have found themselves haunted by past events the house for neglected children they lived in as children, Virginia Minnesota is a quietly contemplative study on grief, loss and friendship as these two meandering souls find themselves in each other's lives once more and looking to move past the roadblocks that have halted their lives up until this point in time.

Perrineau and Hendrix both deliver strong turns with Perrineau in particular impressing as the complicated and feisty Addison who isn't afraid to say it how it is and burn bridges along the way doing so.

The daughter of well-known actor Harold (who appears here in voice format as the helpful/unhelpful talking piece of luggage Mister), Perrineau plays Addison just the right side of likeable as her and Lyle head on a road trip of sorts through the scenic countryside of this Minnesota set tale.

With this picturesque backdrop at his disposal Stine finds another character within his film that helps compliment the films at times stuttering narrative that through a few mistimed circumstances isn't as funny or emotionally powerful as it could've been.

It's a slight shame that Virginia Minnesota didn't completely nail its tonal shifts between comedy and drama and as is the case with films of this ilk it's always a hard balance to weigh up comedic moments, serious musings or whimsy to the right amount and at the end of the day it will offer Stine an important learning experience moving forward to combine all his elements into a more confident whole.

Final Say -

A small and likeable character driven experience, Virginia Minnesota may not transcend to grand heights but this impressive feature debut from Stine, that features a breakthrough performance from Perreneau, is an indie film well worth seeking out.

3 donut loving old people out of 5

This could have been a masterpiece, and despite one major structural flaw, it's still a powerfully moving, beautiful film.

Being familiar with the locations, I found the North Shore vibe believable, and I thought the portrayal of folks mostly rang true, although one law officer had apparently been indoctrinated a little too deeply with our somewhat aspirational "Minnesota Nice". Other than that, the acting was superb, particularly from leads Aurora Perrineau and Rachel Hendrix. (This is definitely not, by the way, a fantasy story. The only fantasy is recounted in some tall-tale legends.) I chuckled and laughed out loud several times at the comic relief provided by Mister the Robot; kudos to writer Daniel Stine.

We learn that a group of women must return to the now-closed home for delinquents where they lived in their youth, for the reading of a will. The struggle of one woman to convince another to cooperate sets up a road trip that allows the pair to come to grips with an event that had torn them apart in those early days. Or rather, that's what it should have done. Instead, this wonderfully acted and filmed story became more of a slice of life, a mere vignette, for nearly its entire length because the writer/director failed to adequately build up to the climactic confrontation.

Although we learn a lot about Lyle's and Addison's history, the real reason for their estrangement is referenced so vaguely and peripherally that near the very end, when they finally talk about it, there has been no opportunity for tension to build. And the resolution boggles the mind, comprised of the briefest conversation followed by... not mentioning it again, and yet all is well between them. Unbelievable!

I cried anyway. Yep, it's a tearjerker ending. All in all, this film could have been better, but it's well worth watching!