Title: Prodigal Sons
Director: Kimberly Reed
Producer: Robert Hawk, Gail Silva (Exec), John Keitel, Kimberly Reed, Louis Rosen (Co)
Cinema: John Keitel
Editor: Shannon Kennedy, Kimberly Reed
Sound: Cory Melious
Year: 2008 (86 minutes)
Synopsis: Returning home to Helena, Montana for her 20-year high school reunion, debut filmmaker Kimberly Reed hopes to rebuild her relationship with her adopted brother – and to capture the experience on camera. Instead of a simple take of estrangement and reconciliation, Prodigal Sons offers deep questions of identity – gender identity, genetic identity, and how traumatic brain injury can completely alter a loved one. Reed’s access and her family’s relative ease around the camera create an intimate portrait of a family which seems so simultaneously ordinary – yet utterly extraordinary. Let’s just say that if Kimberly Reed had attempted to fictionalize her family’s story and sell it as a screenplay, she would have been laughed out of every studio. Instead, we’re given the gift of this raw, emotional, personal – and ultimately beautiful – examination of one family’s attempts to reconcile past with present.
Review: Read the synopsis for this film and it won’t begin to prepare you for the roller coaster ride you’re about to take. In fact, I think the fact that I was unprepared for the plot twists in the film only added to my enjoyment of it. So be warned, the following paragraphs will give away some of the plot lines in the film.
Prodigal Sons is the film embodiment of the phrase “truth is stranger than fiction.” 20-years ago, high school quarterback and BMOC Paul left high school in Montana only to return for his 20-year reunion as Kim (director Kimberly Reed). Kim also reunites with her adopted older brother Mark, who suffers from brain damage as the result of an automobile accident. Mark is lucid one moment, and angry and violent the next. And that’s just the beginning.
The access Reed has and the apparent comfort her family has in front of the camera make for an intimate, yet disturbing documentary. The film explores issues of gender identity (Kim is transgender and her youngest brother is gay), genetic identity (Mark finds out his biological grandfather is Orson Wells. Yes, that Orson Wells.), sibling rivalry and the devastating impact that traumatic brain injury can have on a family.
I can’t speak highly enough about Prodigal Sons. It is Kimberly Reed’s directorial debut and she does a fantastic job. Prodigal Sons has gotten rave reviews from film festivals all over the world, including GLBT festivals. It is a deep, meaningful study of issues seldom explored and rarely presented with such candor and honesty. Prodigal Sons is the best documentary I have seen this year, and that’s saying something.
(4.5 out of 5.0)
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