End of Sentence (2020)

Film: End of Sentence (2020)
Stars: John Hawkes, Logan Lerman, Sarah Bolger
Director: Elfar Adalsteins
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

We're going to continue our look at films of 2020 (that you might have missed) with End of Sentence, a film that appears to have been on the shelf for a while (supposedly it was shot in 2017 but hasn't been released widely until May of this year).  The film features two actors who are ubiquitous at the movies today, but aren't really at the "star status" they might be.  After Hawkes' Oscar nomination & Lerman's star-making work in Percy Jackson and Perks of Being a Wallflower, neither have graduated to a blockbuster franchise (one that hasn't expired...sorry Percy) nor to a hit cable drama series.  Instead, they're cranking out interesting work in tiny character studies, with Lerman, in particular, going the way of Robert Pattinson with (so far) no wearing tights or a black cape.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Frank Fogle (Hawkes), who is picking his son Sean (Lerman) up from prison.  Frank and Sean have an estranged relationship, one that as we continue we understand was related to Frank's father, who beat and emotionally abused Sean as a child, and which we are left to assume Frank didn't stop.  Frank, though, comes with a proposition-he will pay for his son to go anywhere he wants after prison, but only if he honors his late mother's dying wish-that her ashes be spread at a lake in Ireland.  As the film progresses, Frank & Logan encounter a beautiful woman (Bolger), who turns out to be a grifter, and slowly learn more about each other & about the woman who wanted to unite them.

End of Sentence is slighter than you'd think given the heavy subject matter.  Hawkes & Lerman elevate the work (Lerman, in particular), but it doesn't have a lot of meat for pretty heavy subject matter.  When it comes to the fractured relationship between the two men, we're supposed to infer a lot of things that don't quite add up, particularly as the relationship both men have to Frank's father becomes clearer as the movie goes on...but in the process makes their own presents a bit murkier.  This results in the movie being kind of forgettable if never actively bad.

That said, I liked Lerman a lot in the movie.  Hawkes is fair, but considering what he talent he was in Winter's Bone or Martha Marcy Mae Marlene, it's hard to see him not give the role more.  Lerman, though, finds a danger & sexuality to his character we wouldn't have seen on the page (word to the thirsty-Lerman is in various states of undress for large swaths of the entire film for no obvious reason).  Lerman's relationship then with Bolger's Jewel is actually the film's best part-we see the ways that he wants to borrow the best parts of his parents' relationship, even if he won't announce it out loud.  This is all intriguing-it's a bit wasted in a movie so surface-level, but it's proof that good actors can make anything interesting if they try.