directed by:
Bill Rahn written by: James Houston Turner genre: Drama |
What is it they say? Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes? It's something like that, and that's somewhat the premise that "Square Pegs" is based around. After Hiram's wife and Jodie's mother pass away, the family feud is on – they both blame each other for the passing of their dearest loved one. Hiram's a pastor who apparently shares a name with a whiskey that's out there on the market, and Jodie has bought her own bar but is subsisting on what a struggling local business pulls in. A mediating judge decides that the best route to resolving this intense family dispute would be for Jodie and Hiram to switch jobs for a week – which is…a bizarre conclusion for a justice to make, I suppose, but it's one that the plotline for "Square Pegs" needs if it's going to work out in the end.
"I know this is irregular," says the judge. She ain't wrong! I know I'd have been swearing a blue streak if I was either Jodie or her fueled-by-faith father Hiram, but you get the sense within about two minutes of watching "Square Pegs" that nary a curse word will be uttered in this film from beginning to end. So be it! "Square Pegs" is highly cautious when it comes to its use of language, which will resonate with an older, more traditional and/or religious crowd, but the respectful softness displayed in the script could have a tougher time making an impact on those under fifty. You can feel the quaint and pleasant vibes oozing out of your screen as you watch this movie, even at the beginning, as it starts plunging its characters into turmoil. To be fair, one of our main characters IS a pastor, and the other is his daughter – so it'd be a bit unlikely to find either swearing like a sailor. That being said, I do think most folks tuning in for "Square Pegs" will feel like it's a good movie to watch with their grandparents…and whether that's what you're looking for on a Friday night or not is all up to you. The boys in this town masquerading as men in the bar could certainly use some work on their pickup lines. From bets over pickled eggs to weird comments on someone being their "favourite dresser" to perpetually asking if one of the waitresses is ready to "take a chance" – I ain't lyin' to ya when I say it feels like the space we're in for "Square Pegs" feels like it's nearly straight outta "The Twilight Zone" for me. It's otherworldly different than many places you've probably been to, which can work both for and against a film – on the one hand, "Square Pegs" shows us a reality we're not all familiar with, but exists – and on the other hand, that can feel disconnected from a lot of what we tend to experience in our own day to day lives. As the two main characters switch places, we learn that the bar itself isn't quite Jodie's yet…she still needs to pay for it, which is a fairly key ingredient in owning a place – and we discover that Hiram couldn't pour a beer properly to save his life. He does seem to know what the proper standards should be to run a kitchen and how to serve food, but alas, that ain't the role he's being forced to play. Will Jodie have better luck serving as a pastor for an entire congregation? It seems very unlikely! "I'm a bartender, not a preacher," as Jodie herself will tell ya. And so there you have it, folks. Our main characters are the "Square Pegs," and the title has been metaphorically referring to them all this time. Mystery solved! Alright…you were probably picking that up by now. The truth is, the displacement of both Hiram and Jodie is what gives this film its relatable qualities – we all feel like fish out of water at times, don't we? We're all "Square Pegs" trying to fit ourselves through the round hole of life, and we learn how to fit in wherever we are – but that doesn't mean fitting in is ever going to be easy to accomplish. As you might expect, the patrons of the bar seem a whole lot less interested in waiting for the new hire to get up to speed – they're looking for a beer and a whiskey, and they want it yesterday. When it comes to the church, you've got the first three rows jam packed with supportive and patient people all waiting to hear what Jodie has to say, even knowing that she's got no real-life experience at the pulpit so far. They're in different worlds they're unfamiliar with now, but they're still connected. To make things even weirder for us, one of those connections is shown to us through flashback scenes of sharing pickled egg delights as Jodie was growing up. Is it just me, or are these eggs getting a whole lot more screen time than they probably need? It feels like "Square Pegs" has about 200% more eggs in the script than most films you're likely to see this year….or like, ever. As I was saying earlier, there are noticeable disconnects in what's going to be relevant to most viewers in that regard throughout this film, and you'll notice a few spots that seem a little forced or unlikely as well, like when thieves break into a church after hours to discover the collection plate is still full after everyone has gone home. It's not impossible, of course, but definitely unlikely. Or how about how calm and cool everyone is after they learn who burnt down the church – is that realistic, or did this movie miss the opportunity for some added drama?
As one of the potential arsonists comes in to offer his help in fixing the church when he should definitely have been in cuffs by then, you can't help but feel some of our suspension of disbelief disappearing as well. Then it's time for a heart-to-heart between the pastor and this potential lawbreaker minutes after his friends tried to burn the whole place down…and yeah…it feels like we're missing a step or two overall. Then Hiram wants to help Mr. Guthrie, the arsonist, by having their sentence become renovating the portions of the church that were damaged in the fire…and…I mean…does life work like this? Anywhere? And if it does, then should it? Don't get me wrong, I might not be a religious guy myself, but I appreciate the values the faith-based community has…but do I think there's a benefit to trying to communicate those values to us through a story that doesn't quite add up in terms of how realistic it needs to be in order to make some sense? Not really, no! So far, all of the courtroom scenes that we've seen depict scenarios that would be very unlikely to ever take place…and whenever you've got something that's a bit on the unbelievable side, you know that what you're witnessing is a plot device that's too obvious. Acting-wise, it's pretty even across the board…no real standouts, but no one that's not holding their own either – I'm satisfied with what we get in "Square Pegs" in that respect. The direction from Bill Rahn is also clear enough, but I do feel like there's a responsibility shared between the Writer (James Houston Turner) and Director Rahn to catch the spots that would threaten to snap our suspension of disbelief, which is essentially crucial to keep intact in any film as much as possible. By the time we reach the halfway point in "Square Pegs," I could feel myself starting to squirm in my seat and getting restless – I'm not so convinced that this movie is spending all its time showing us what it needs to or that the right amount of attention to detail is being prioritized in the places that perhaps it should be for this story to connect - the way that it's intended to. You get to that halfway mark, and "Square Pegs" goes on to basically introduce more into its plotline, but it still feels like its ideas are being stretched super thin. You'll even find the judge siding with me – "There was no legal precedent for what I did in there today." I couldn't agree more – but it's precisely what is starting to make "Square Pegs" feel longer than it should. "You're starting to act more like one of them," says the outlaw to the seemingly instantly reformed bad guy who is now fixing up the church…and again, I couldn't agree more. It doesn't usually work that way, but we're essentially being asked to accept that it does as this plotline continues to awkwardly lurch forward. The film does expose just how extremely easy it is to put a lien on someone else's property, which is entirely true, and I know it firsthand, but I'll save that story for another time. We go from seeing Jodie have about two moments speaking to the flock to having the entire congregation wanting her to be the permanent pastor of the church. I'm not trying to harp on the importance of details & linking a story together through them, but you really just can't ask viewers to be responsible for filling in all the gaps. "Square Pegs" attempts to run with its story long before it has proven it can walk, and it costs the film its ability to make the larger points it's interested in making by skipping over the smallest details. Soon enough, the pastor revives the restaurant one burger at a time, and these "Square Pegs" begin to find out that they might belong more in places they originally thought they didn't even fit in. We get it. I don't know if I've ever been to a restaurant where one of the staff members jumped up on a chair to announce the upcoming menu before, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. As to whether or not that makes for a compelling watch in the context of a movie, I'll let you decide. I gotta go with what's being shown to me and how. I'm fine with the acting, I'm fine with the filming, but I'm wrestling with the details that are included and struggling with the ones that aren't. "Square Pegs" needs more than it gives us and spends a whole lot of time missing what it should probably be the most focused on. It is watchable enough, but I don't think that's anyone's real goal in making a film, nor should it be. I'm going with two stars out of five for "Square Pegs" – it's tough to justify the mission it's on when it relies on multiple unlikely scenarios as the main vehicles to get this film to the points it wants to make. |
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