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Justin Timberlake plays an ex-inmate caring for a child in the Fisher Stevens drama.
Just a few months ago, Juno Temple helped give the all-new Apple TV + service its first must-have: Ted lasso, a near-perfect comedy series that radiated decency and hope in a world that … well, you were there. She is strongly opposed to her reunion with the streaming service, playing a drug addict single mom so negligent that abandoning her child in the care of a newly released criminal is actually a step in the right direction.
This ex-convict is the eponymous hero of Fisher Stevens’ Palmer, and played by Justin Timberlake, it’s almost convincing enough to make you ignore how many times child protection has redeemed struggling or cranky adults onscreen. A knowledgeable cast helps the photo move beyond its formulaic nature (pulling out a drunken connection and a bit of language, and it’s quite a mainstream family movie, at least for non-homophobic families), but it doesn’t in fact not a must-have. For followers of the Timberlake acting record, which has seen its ups and downs in business and artistic terms, it’s further proof that a successful second career could await the pop star if he so chooses.
Timberlake’s Eddie Palmer is a former hometown hero whose football career ended after only a year of prom. Bad choices and a weakness for painkillers got him to jail, but he has served his time without complaint; back in a small town in Louisiana, he is ready to start from the bottom to rebuild his life.
He moves in with the grandmother who raised him. Vivian (June Squibb) insists on going to church and isn’t about to pamper her boy: Most of her motherly energies are now needed by Sam (Ryder Allen), the son of the woman who rents a trailer in its side yard. Temple’s Shelly loves Sam but isn’t equipped to juggle an addiction, an angry boyfriend (a well-underused Dean Winters) and a child. She often disappears for days or weeks, leaving Vivian to be her family. Shelly is on a long one of these benders when Vivian dies.
As is customary in these stories, Palmer has no desire to deal with childcare. He might even be a little disgusted with this particular kid. Sam wears hair clips and plays with dolls; princesses are her “favorite thing in the whole world”. “You know you’re a boy, don’t you?” Palmer asks him early on. But seeing the others harass the kid is all it takes for Palmer to put his boredom aside. It’s a city of schoolyard bullies and Sunday morning gossip, and Cheryl Guerriero’s screenplay shows admirable restraint in letting us draw our own comparisons between the fate of the criminal and that of the maverick. gender.
Palmer understands. And, since the only job in town he can find is as a school janitor, he can keep an eye on Sam day and night. Her attention is inevitably noticed by Sam’s pretty divorced teacher, Miss Maggie (Alisha Wainwright), who offers to help out with Sam’s care. Both adults deserve some sort of minor reward for managing to spend as much time as they can. together pretend that they are only interested in caring for the child.
Timberlake draws a believable line from the taciturn self-protection of a prisoner to the humility of freedom-with-limits to the dawn of a possible new life. Palmer isn’t a particularly well-drawn character, but he feels real enough to fight for Sam when the time comes – both physically, confronting bullies when the boy can’t, and legally, once the challenge is required. for his guard shows up. Stevens does not shamelessly play the tearjerker card, as many of his predecessors did in similar cases. But the movie has little trouble putting us on Palmer’s side, and hoping the powers that be come and make him a father.
Production companies: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Hercules Film Fund, Rhea Films
Distributor: Apple TV +
Interpretation: Justin Timberlake, Ryder Allen, Alisha Wainwright, Juno Temple, June Squibb, Lance E. Nichols, Jesse C. Boyd, Wynn Everett, Stephen Louis Grush
Director: Fisher Stevens
Writer: Cheryl Guerriero
Producers: Charlie Corwin, Sidney Kimmel, Daniel Nadler, John Penotti, Charles B. Wessler
Executive Producers: Terry Dougas, Jared Goldman, Cheryl Guerriero, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis
Director of Photography: Tobias A. Schliessler
Production designer: Happy Massee
Costume designer: Megan Coates
Editor: Geoffrey Richman
Composer: Tamar-kali
Casting Directors: Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee
R, 111 minutes
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