DVD Wake

This is an intriguing independent film that seems for a while destined to be one of those injury-recovery-of-the-week movies like "The Other Side of the Mountain." It's about a champion-grade skate boarder who suffers a devastating injury and hopes to come back not just to walk again, but to skate, as well. But just at about the point where it seems we've seen all this before, the film makes a very interesting left turn into something few of us have seen in a movie before. The shattered skateboarder, Bobby Wake, suddenly discovers he has the power to heal and even raise from the dead.

What follows is a fascinating story of the tug-of-war between duty and desire, as Bobby, who only wants to get well so he can skate again, must face the fact that he has a gift, apparently from God, and that with great gifts come great responsibilities.

The film has a few holes. Bobby and a helpful priest are practically the only two major characters who are non-Latinos, yet there's no explanation or particular attention given to why Bobby is so deeply immersed in a culture other than his own. Bobby is shown to be such a decent fellow, such a mensch, that his reluctance to use his new-found healing powers seems unlike the young man we've watched before this point. And there are questions about the mechanics of the healing process that arise because they are not well explained before we see alterations in them. When one healing plays out completely differently than the ones that came before, we're left wondering why we didn't know about this possibility, when knowing of it would have sharpened its effect. Also, a sequence involving Bobby's girlfriend in a crack house seems a huge digression and a poor substitute for further exploration of a huge change in the relationship between Bobby and the film's antagonist, a vicious thug who is the father of Bobby's girlfriend's son. It would have been wonderful to get more of the juice out of that dramatic shift instead of a confusing and seemingly pointless adventure among dope addicts.

Yet the film asks some interesting questions and poses some intriguing possible answers. Writer-director (and art director!) Steve Garrett (who also plays the priest) obviously knows his Ambrose Bierce, and he films with style and gets some fine performances out of his actors, particularly Renee Victor as the girlfriend's grandmother, who nurses Bobby after his accident.

A very nice film from a promising filmmaker.