Nailed [DVD]

This film, "Nailed", is one of those great (yet sad) examples today of a film that is worthy of major theatrical/commercial attention being brushed aside to the direct-to-video category so the major distributors and multiplex chains can make more room for popcorn, action fare. It is hardly a "B-Movie", but rather, is a smart, funny, touching character study that, had it been made 25-30 years ago, would probably be considered a minor masterpiece.

It tells the story of Jeff (Brad Rowe), a young aspiring screenwriter whose brief, torrid affair with an extremely troubled young woman (Rachel Blanchard) leads to permanent, lasting consequences in the form of an unplanned baby. This causes much distress in Jeff's close-knit, Jewish-Italian family in NYC, especially his well-meaning, but overbearing father (Harvey Keitel,as always, in a brilliant performance), who is the patriarch of this tight clan. Yet, at every obstacle, Jeff faces his responsibilities dead-on (a true rarity these days!). Jeff, ultimately must learn to take care of his child and deal, simultaneously, with his family's objections. The film is really about unconditional love and resposibility even when neither are convenient.

Debut writer-director Joel Silverman does a fabulous job of telling a sensitive story from a rare, male perspective. And his fluid, overlapping editing-style keeps the film moving and provides a lot of the film's comic relief. The performances are all excellent, and I liked the film's style and heart. In the end, it's examination of parental love and fatherhood reminds us that our children are us and, as much as we may try and fight it, we are our parents,too.

This is a slow-moving drama that covers an ever-present phenomenom that occurs with increasing rapidity in the present age: what to do when you have an unexpected pregnancy with someone you barely know.

The story centers on a bachelor who has a fling with an emotionally unstable, aloof, prone-to-flip-out but attractive blonde. It does not take long before she gets pregnant, accidently.

The balance of the film deals with the obvious but painful question "Where do we go from here?" His proud family wants her to get an abortion and then for him to ditch her. He wants to do the honorable thing and see it thru. She is bereft of any familial support at all and bounces from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other instantaneously.

Harvey Keitel is terrific as a compassionate, caring but somewhat domineering father. He loves his son, but his heart is broken in that his first grandson and daughter-in-law may be the result of impulsive decisions.

To complicate matters even more, given that she has had so little to cling on to in her life, she invests her decision-making process into the flawed machinery of astrology. In other words, she is as flakey as flakey gets.

For myself, I have never thought much about the abortion issue one way or the other. Quite simply put, it has never effected my personal life.

However, in seeing this film I could for the 1st time see it as a pivotal and painful decision - regardless of which direction one chose to go. This is a well-done film and becomes increasingly relevant as a warning to people who are apt not to think before crossing the sexual threshold with people whom they hardly know.

This is a very well put together film, with sensitive, realistic, even astute writing, and excellent acting all around. It deserves a wider audience, and credit for dealing with the sociological aspects of a tough subject like abortion in a non simplistic, formulaic, or preaching manner, although it does contain brief scenes providing the religious take on the subject.

But for me, what kept me watching was the authentic portrayal of the gap between two cautiously hopeful, basically good, young people coming together to try to determine for themselves if a child and a union is right for them. His innocent exploration of weather to have the baby or not, is typical of a genuine indecision process not uncommon for an inexperienced, but ethical person, who has been sheltered in their youth by privilege. His soul- searching is extended by her cautious reticence to reveal who she is and her sordid history, while her consideration of having the baby is relevant for the automatic saving factor, blessings, and fresh start unrealistically believed by the naive to be engendered by the birth of a perfect baby, regardless of the circumstances it's born into. That the gap is widened as they come to learn about each other, by the vast differences in their class backgrounds, slowly becomes undeniable even to them. Despite their physical attractiveness, attraction for each other, and their mutual good intentions, they are ultimately unable or unwilling to bridge the social and behavioral gap between his upper class upbringing, advanced education, and extended, but critical, family support system, versus her deprived, multi-faceted abusive childhood that has scared her social development. The film culminates in a tragedy of minor Shakespearian proportions with one of the young lovers falling on the metaphorical knife, and in so doing shows the truly unselfish, good heart of the victimized character, and offers hope that the effects of their deprivation ultimately can be transcended.

It's a good watch, and it rings true.