ERIC LARUE – Review by Betsy Pickle
It’s no surprise that actor Michael Shannon’s feature-directing debut is filled with exceptional performances. Shannon is one of the most striking actors of our time, and the cast of Eric LaRue collectively elicits goosebumps throughout the length of the film.
Eric LaRue is about the effect on the secondary victims of a small-town school shooting – not the three boys who were murdered but their mothers, and especially on the mother of the shooter, Janice LaRue (Judy Greer). Months after the event, Janice is a shell of a human, barely communicating with her husband, Ron (Alexander Skarsgard), and avoiding contact with other people as best she can.
Steve Calhan (Paul Sparks), the pastor at Janice’s Presbyterian church, encourages Janice to come and talk to him. She resists, saying she’s not ready. Ron has started attending a different church, Redeemer, where the pastor, Bill Verne (Tracy Letts), offers a more energetic style of shepherding his congregation.
In an alternate universe, Eric LaRue could have turned into a dark comedy about ministers competing to bring a resolution to the mothers’ suffering, but writer Brett Neveu, who based the script on his 2002 play, has something else in mind. He scrapes away the surface of Janice’s brittle armor to show how she has internalized the actions of her son, and the other mothers (Annie Parisse, Kate Arrington and Jennifer Engstrom) are perfectly capable of finding their own resolution.
Somewhat reminiscent of the 2011 Tilda Swinton film We Need To Talk About Kevin, Eric LaRue deviates in its depiction of the tortured mother. Unlike Kevin’s mother, Janice is obviously devoted to motherhood, even as she shows bewilderment over the actions of her son.
Shannon makes it clear from the start that this won’t be an “up” movie. The score is melancholy and the pace is leisurely, and while it gains energy it doesn’t really catch fire until the title character (Nation Sage Henrikson) appears.
Greer has the meatiest role of her career, and she takes full advantage of it. She captures every slice of Janice – the zombie, the victim, the aggressor and more. There’s no sign of the bubbly performer she is known as. Skarsgard also plays against type as the ineffectual Ron, and he’s totally convincing.
The mothers don’t get a lot of screen time, but each one is outstanding. Parisse has the most dramatic turn, but Engstrom gets a showcase, and Arrington is heartbreaking as the quiet one.
With its stage roots, Eric LaRue not surprisingly, emphasizes talk, not action. Shannon is an expert at turning a phrase himself, so he has no trouble guiding his actors to perfection in delivery. The basis of the film is dark, but the thoughtful examination of the script and the interpretation by the cast shines light on a somber scenario.
