Scrap

Writer/director (and star) Vivian Kerr’s film, Scrap, opens on a woman (Kerr) sleeping in her car. When a passing jogger asks if she needs help, she quickly makes her way to another location. It’s clear our protagonist, Beth, is living in her vehicle.

Problems continue to pile up on Beth as she struggles to navigate this existence. She is also desperate to keep this tenuous situation from her brother, Ben (Anthony Rapp), in whose house she’s just crashed with her daughter, Birdy (Julianna Layne).

Because life is never simple, Ben has his own issues. However, in light of Beth’s situation, these don’t seem particularly compelling. His career as a writer isn’t going the direction he wants, and he and his wife, Stacy (Lana Parrilla) are struggling to have children of their own. The first problem feels like someone living the dream whining that the dream isn’t dreamy enough. The second problem elicits a lot more sympathy.

Of course, the strength of the film rests on both the stellar performances of Kerr and Rapp, and their amazing chemistry as a brother and sister struggling to understand each other. Stacy adds another dimension to the family drama, as she has so much less patience for Beth’s flakiness than Ben. And since neither Ben nor Stacy really understand what’s going on with Beth, Stacy’s lack of sympathy rings true.

There are additional pieces that come into play over the course of the film building a rich backstory.

Kerr does an excellent job addressing the questions that might arise while watching the film. It’s also easy for people to sit from a place of comfort and wonder why another might be so reluctant to share that their life is falling apart. Why they might make choices that seem counterproductive to moving forward.

The film’s biggest issue is that it, like Beth, too often treats Birdy as an afterthought. While it works for the character, it doesn’t work as well for the film. Birdy deserves a bigger place in the narrative, as she is as much affected by the situation as anyone. Because the film is otherwise so well-crafted, this only makes Birdy’s lack of depth stand out more.

But it’s hard to fault the film too much since Kerr paints such a touching portrait of a woman struggling to make it in a world that treats so many like her with such disdain.