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A deft, nuanced drama which, while conventionally framed, still feels fresh and new, Twelve And Holding is a delight. Its three child stars are all strong, but this film will be remembered for young actress Zoe Weizenbaum’s performance as a young girl caught between precocious childhood and the full onslaught of femininity. L.I.E’s Michael Cuesta, directing from Anthony Cipriano’s multi-layered script, skilfully pushes through several dramatic – often melodramatic – plot-lines simultaneously without ever overwhelming the film. He uses comedy and colour to diffuse the highly-charged emotions involved and somehow reminds audiences of that age when everything is a matter of life and death -only in this case, it really is. Like the young children at the onset of the story, Twelve And Holding’s future is a blank page. This could have mid-sized commercial breakout potential; although it lacks the dramatic crescendos of a Stand By Me, it is a less showy and deceptively more ambitious film than Rob Reiner’s classic. If it goes down the arthouse route instead then it will be regarded as an accomplished work that will attract attention, with a chance of indie awards notice for 14-year-old Weizenbaum, who will soon appear in Memoirs Of A Geisha. But it also runs the risk of falling between the cracks of the two circuits – and this is why this it will need a committed team and strategic release plan if it is to succeed in either. The delicate drama is centred around three children in the wake of a tragic event. Jacob (Donovan), scarred by a birthmark on his face, loses his extrovert twin brother Rudy in a violent event, with best friends Malee (Weizenbaum) and Leonard (Camach) also left reeling in the aftermath. As Jacob’s parents (Roache and Atkinson) attempt bleakly to fill the void, Leonard tackles his weight problem in a very individual way and Malee becomes obsessed with one of her psychiatrist mother’s (Sciorra) patients, nicely played by Renner. The younger characters are on the cusp of adulthood; they instinctively grasp more than their parents realise, and yet there is so much they poignantly don’t understand. Their attempts to fix the situation are clumsy and could, at any moment, go wrong beyond what they are mature enough to see – a tension that is beautifully maintained throughout. Cuesta’s accomplishment is to present the drama from the children’s perspective; to leaven it with comedy, and to trickle in the adult performances to position the audience somewhere in the middle of the two. He avoids pathos and cheap sentimentality, and has given himself quite a challenge to pull together the various strands of this film, which is more complex than it superficially appears. But he is well up to the task. |
