directed by:
Maynard Bagang written by: Maynard Bagang genre: Drama |
Man, if an instrumental music introduction could talk, this one would tell you that you’re about to be in store for the heaviest of Drama. It doesn’t take long at all before you’ll realize that’s exactly what this is. Ten years ago, Lisa and James were in a much happier place. With tears in their eyes as they exchanged the vows they personally wrote for their wedding day, you can visibly see the love these characters have for one another onscreen, and you feel it in your chest. It’s the first thing you’ll see in this movie from Writer/Director Maynard Bagang - before it all flashes forward to James being isolated and alone in the present, you’ll go quickly from feeling the sweetness of a heartwarming scene to the devastating effect of seeing a heartbroken man who has lost his purpose.
Chandra White, who plays Lisa, is an absolutely special gem – the love you can see in her expressive eyes is genuinely extraordinary. We always hope to see actors and actresses who are able to truly embody the characters they play, and right from the drop, that’s exactly what you get from Chandra. There is no Chandra; there’s only Lisa, and she should be seriously commended for that. That said, James ain’t no slouch either when it comes right down to it. Maynard must have decided he didn’t have quite enough to do already with the writing and directing, so he takes on the key role of James and proves he’s able to hold his own in scenes with Chandra, which is impressive. I think it’s fair to say we’ve all seen our fair share of movies where the Director or the Writer might land themselves a part and you can instantly see they’re out of their depth, but as you shift into the weary future version of James, you’ll recognize he’s smartly written a part that he was truly born to play. The emotion in his face is extraordinary…you can see how much pain he’s living with as he tries his best to navigate a world he never thought he’d be alone in. If you’ve found your own person in this life, you know full well that losing them would be like losing a part of yourself forever, and how excruciating that would be. Losing Lisa has broken James into a million pieces, and while he’s trying to talk through the loss and find a way to heal, you have to genuinely wonder if that would ever be possible. If I were in his position…jeez…I’ll admit to you all upfront as honestly as I can – I don’t think I could carry on at all. Meanwhile, you’ll also be introduced to Isabella in the scenes in between meeting James and learning about his situation. Isabella (Jasmin Davis) is going through extremely hard times – not only is she undocumented in a country that’s become much less accepting of immigrants, but she’s about to become homeless with a couple of kids to take care of. You can see the dirt on their faces and hear the desperation in their voices. I can’t even begin to imagine how tough life would be for somebody in her circumstances. She’s clearly a proud person who is not looking for a mere handout. She wants to work and provide for her children, but without proof that she can be legally employed, she faces a monumental uphill battle. She’s sleeping on the street with her kids wrapped up beside her. She’s searching through garbage cans for food. She’s forced to swallow her pride and ask for help from total strangers she’s never met – but that might be the only real way out of her circumstances. This movie proves to be extremely tough to watch if you’ve got a heart that’s beating. You ache for Isabella and her family to find their way and for everything to work out for them, though you know that the odds are stacked way high against them. Everything we do in society needs paperwork and an app of some kind. Danger lurks around every corner. The difference between being okay enough to get by and full-on devastating circumstances you might never recover from mentally and/or physically is minimal, to say the very least. Isabella is doing her best not to break and shatter into a million pieces as we watch, and as we see her unbreakable resolve to keep going, it is gut-wrenching to witness her many struggles. The kids in this film will make you cry – so be ready for that. As “The Sanctuary” begins to reveal a few small cracks of light through the dark, it’s the children in this story who remind you that kindness is an essential part of who we are and that our natural instincts to help others are among humanity’s best qualities. We’re talking about two separate stories of people who have genuinely lost everything that made life worth living to them and helped them feel comfortable in this world, and much credit to the work of Bagang in his writing, direction, and acting; his film is remarkably hard to watch for all the right reasons. Its relevance to what’s happening in America today is impossible to miss. As ICE begins to crack down hard on immigrants, including the homeless, Bagang opts to make one of his most strange & questionable decisions in attempting to add some heart to the agents carrying out the orders…and I’m not entirely sure how I personally feel about that if I’m being honest with you. Watching them debate and struggle with their new directives to be even more aggressive with their arrests is almost impossible for me to imagine, but I’m an unapologetic left-winger with a big heart. ICE are monsters, in my opinion, and there’s no amount of movie magic that can paint them in a better light – they’re truly awful people. Just following orders isn’t good enough to justify their evil tactics. I hope none of them can sleep at night. Seeing them struggle to find the morality in what they do is the very least of what they should be going through. I appreciate what Bagang is communicating, and I get the message that he’s going for, but rehabilitating the image of ICE even one iota is so much more than these murderers really deserve.
While “The Sanctuary” gets a little confused about how to go about communicating the message it wants to convey to us at points, most specifically in spots where it’s discussing modern-day medicine vs. the natural resources on Earth - and spending a bit too much time in scenes surrounding that - Bagang never loses sight of what he really wants to say with his film. It’s a reminder that helping others is the best way we can help ourselves, even when we feel like all is lost. As we watch James find his way back to a functional version of himself, he and Isabella and the rest of a ragtag community of homeless folks who are all simply trying to survive, the unity they display reminds us that we don’t ever have to be alone. There is always someone out there who has been through whatever we’re going through, and someone who understands the circumstances you’re facing is never too far away. That doesn’t mean that people won’t be inhumane and that trouble doesn’t exist – the scenes with ICE involved in “The Sanctuary” serve as a painful reminder that, unfortunately, we don’t always prioritize our humanity in the ways that we should. While Bagang attempts to paper over a whole bunch of the injustices we see along the way in his film with a happier resolution than you might have expected for one of the movie’s main characters, you’ll also see an ending that makes an even greater point about how compliance is complicity, and how our ignorance of the circumstances immigrants are facing is a problem for us ALL. So although I can appreciate that one of the main villains in this story eventually faces accountability, I never felt quite convinced that “The Sanctuary” had a full grasp on what the real problems are, so much as it latches onto a fraction of the issues and scrapes the surface of the trouble it causes for families and regular people who aren’t causing any harm to anybody. I’m going with three and a half stars out of five – it’s definitely good, it deals with incredibly important issues, and at the core of it all, there’s real heart to be found in what “The Sanctuary” is trying to say, even if it’s more implied than fully realized. |
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