Images courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
ERIC LARUE– 3 STARS
Take it from this career educator. Mass shootings taking place at schools have become problematic and regrettably too commonplace in the United States. It’s also evolved to be a hypersensitive topic to address on the big or small screen. No matter if a true story is being adapted or an adjacent fictional story is presented, the pendulum of pushbacks between glorification, dishonor, and virtue signaling is inescapable. A storyteller venturing into that subject matter of touchy thorns requires courage and a firmness of purpose. The forthright and twice Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon has those qualities and channels them into Eric LaRue, his directorial debut as a filmmaker.
Shannon’s roots come from the Chicago stage at the A Red Orchid Theatre. He calls upon that experience for Eric LaRue in adapting fellow A Red Orchid Theatre ensemble member Brett Neveu’s 2002 play. The plot of the play takes place several months after a school shooting has rocked an unnamed North Carolina town. The protagonist is Janice LaRue, played by the ultra-adaptable Judy Greer shelving her usual comedic chops. She is the mother of the titular convicted shooter alongside her husband Ron (The Northman’s Alexander Skarsgård, going nebbishly far away from his smoldering hunk mode).
LESSON #1: WHERE WERE THE PARENTS?— Often when the perpetrators of school shootings are revealed to be classmates or students of the people they targeted and killed, a common reactionary line of questions centers on the shooters’ parents or family. Did the weapons used come from negligent or culpable adults in the house? Where were they? Did they not see the signs that led up to this heinous act? Could they have prevented what happened? Considering those inquiries is every parent’s nightmare. Then again, so is losing a child to murder.
Save for a single early flashback showing the police arriving at their home to arrest Eric LaRue (striking newcomer Nation Sage Henrikson) and brief flickers during the final reel, all of the events of the school shooting are treated as unseen prior history. Eric obtained two firearms, hid them from his parents, and killed three of his fellow high schoolers. They were identified and buried. Publicly, there are no lingering legal doubts. Eric admitted to his actions and was prosecuted. He has spent months in a federal prison, where neither of his parents have visited even once.
What’s left is a tenuous aftermath landscape Shannon’s characters must lurch through. With dangerously frayed threads of connection, Janice and Rob still reside alongside the appalled, gossiping locals and, worse, the surviving families of their son’s victims—people they used to count as acquaintances and friends. Eric LaRue wallows in this damaged and mournful setting and means to depict it being jaded further.
Speaking of aftermath feelings, watching Eric LaRue calls to mind the devout “thoughts and prayers” crowd. Church-sponsored support and intervention—in the form of a pair of very different local pastors played by Pulitzer Prize-winning actor/playwright Tracy Letts and veteran character actor Paul Sparks—enter the film to influence Janice and Rob in competing directions. Now, the satirical website The Onion and standup comedian Anthony Jeselnik may have their terse and popular replies to that rote knee-jerk condolence and its perceived worth, but Eric LaRue occupies an area where those faith-backed wishes are genuinely pondered and even labeled.
LESSON #2: WHO GETS THE THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS?— Step back and think of the multiple directions. Who gets the “thoughts and prayers” after Eric’s crime? Who are they actually for? The victims and their families or the overall church-going community at large? Who doesn’t get them or less of them? The LaRue parents are innocent and still live in town, yet appear trapped in external condemnation unable to continue with their lives. Shouldn’t they be included and supported?
That’s where Tracy Letts and Paul Sparks make their pitches. The latter plays the irregularly chipper Presbyterian pastor Steve Calhan trying to gain the trust of Janice. After squeezing Janice for permission, he seeks to set up a meeting between Janice and the three grieving mothers—Stephanie Grazer (Sparks’ real-life wife and Law & Order alum Annie Parisse), Jill Yardling (Shannon’s wife and Steppenwolf grad Kate Arrington), and Laura Gates (another A Red Orchid Theatre member Jennifer Engstrom)–to mend relationships.
Meanwhile, Letts is Pastor Bill Verne from a competing Evangelical church across town where Laura Gates is a congregant. Bill is looking to broker the same parental meeting and entirely has his hooks in Rob LaRue, thanks to the endless encouragement and prayer group coaching of Lisa Graff (Alison Pill, recently seen in Trap), one of Rob’s co-workers. While Janice cannot find meaning through her perturbed fog or hold down her old job for a path of normalcy, Rob has found Jesus and practically leaves her behind his new devotions, which is straining their marriage.
LESSON #3: WHEN CHURCH DOESN’T HELP THE SITUATION– Scaffolding this house-dividing tug-of-war, Eric LaRue unveils the shading of one part of the film’s conscious agenda. Seen through Janice’s nonplused point of view, neither church leader nor their efforts are portrayed as successful. Verne is depicted as the manipulative huckster stressing and imprinting old patriarchal ultimatums on a gullible Rob duped by Alison Pill’s infiltration. Likewise, Calhan, while earnest, is shown to be completely inept at counseling problems with any capacity for outside empathy without telling people what to say. Favor and membership are put before faith. Advice and suggestions are trivial, at best. Every interaction feels more and more futile for Janice. Depending on a viewer’s own religious biases or proclivities, these episodes in Eric LaRue could cause derision and disconnection, especially when they take up the bulk of the film.
Among this Eric LaRue cast, Judy Greer is nothing short of incredible and award-worthy for what may very well be her career-best dramatic performance. Not every actor can hold Janice’s hated position and take the best swings of verbal punishment from others while still fleshing out their character’s equally embroiled side. Embodying a figure fraught with pain from her sullen eyes, Judy Greer adds layer upon layer of withdrawn and resigned body language. Yet, the sharp script grants Janice atypical and affirming emotional releases that ruffle feathers and are not all obligatory meek sadness people expect from her.
True to a play’s performative spine, Eric LaRue rises to become an actor’s showcase building towards two important summits: the aforementioned collection of mothers and the first visit to Eric in prison. Each seated clash places Judy Greer in the unenviable position as the target of ire and the recipient of painful reactions, where no amount of contrition will be enough and immediate peace is impossible. These twin climaxes underscore the powerful tension and drama Michael Shannon—an expert, if you will, in every conceivable version of “troubled” character expressions—yokes from his ensemble and parse out to his film’s audience. We’re watching a wringer that doesn’t wring us out in return because we come to understand and care so deeply for this broken woman at odds.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1292)
