CHICAGO– The balancing act between reality and drama in based-on-truth narratives is as delicate as walking the high wire. Pour in too much drama, and a story can feel like a soap opera. “Gimme Shelter,” although earnestly and achingly performed, has that sudsy protocol.
 Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
The film is about a sanctuary, in this case the harboring of single mothers during their unexpected pregnancies. It focuses on one particular case, a teenager raised on the streets by a drug addicted mother. When the teen finds herself with child, she runs away and eventually ends up in a shelter set up by a devout fellow traveler. The key in this scenario is the transition from street tough to expectant mother, which the film handles awkwardly. The relationships portrayed are not warm at any level, and are delivered through overwrought acting rather than any solid connection. The subject matter needed to be closer to the truth, rather skimming the surface towards a happy ending.
Apple (Vanessa Hudgens) has led a difficult life on urban streets. Her mother (Rosario Dawson) is a substance abuser and barely survives with her daughter in a series of transient relationships and substandard living. When Apple finds herself pregnant, she runs away to her biological father (Brendan Fraser), who has become a high-level financial guru, with a lifestyle and family to match.
Apple’s father takes her in, but wants her to terminate the pregnancy. Unable to do so, Apple takes to the streets again and finds Kathy DiFiore (Ann Dowd), who offers the down-and-out mother to be a space in her shelter for single mothers. Despite efforts from her mother to reclaim her, and her father to reconnect with her, Apple finds the place that she can finally call home.
Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of ”Gimme Shelter”
Apple (Vanessa Hudgens) Contemplates Her Fate in ‘Gimme Shelter’
Photo credit: Roadside Attractions
Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of ”Gimme Shelter”
