WE COULD STILL BE PENPALS – Review by Betsy Pickle
We Could Still Be Pen Pals comes with a lot of question marks attached.
For starters, doesn’t the title suggest a somewhat passive movie concept? Is there even such a thing as pen pals in this age of texts, email and instant messages? What moviegoers would be drawn to such a concept in the 21st century?
But most important, have we learned nothing from the roughly 10 million stage, television and film productions of Cyrano de Bergerac? Carrying on a correspondence while pretending to be someone else is a foolish and dangerous thing to do.
Writer-director Juliet Lucas makes a valiant effort with this archaic concept and eventually succeeds, but not without slogging through an awkward first act and an overabundance of weak acting.
The story starts on the last day before summer vacation in a suburban elementary school. Mrs. Lewis (DonnaKelli Barnett) is a fifth-grade teacher who obviously cares about her students. She takes a little extra time with Damien (River Downing), who has proven to be a talented writer but is worried about moving up to sixth grade in a new school with a new teacher.
She tries to assuage his fears by offering to write to him – to be his pen pal. Most kids his age would probably run from the idea, but Damien welcomes it. When his home life is upended, he’s grateful to have the connection with his favorite teacher as something solid.
Time passes, and as a college student, Damien (Alec Dean Boeschen) is as introverted as ever, even though he has a steady girlfriend, Stacy (Shay Anuhea). He is at odds with his father, and he feels more and more disconnected from Stacy. Since Mrs. Lewis has always been his mentor in the area of communication, he asks her for guidance, and she writes back with suggestions.
Only it isn’t Mrs. Lewis writing, but her granddaughter, Lindsey (Christine Celozzi). Mrs. Lewis has passed away, but Christine is well aware of the pair’s correspondence, and as she is a relationship therapist, Christine wants to help Damien through this rough stretch in his young life.
Thankfully, Lucas doesn’t toy with a romance between the college student and the 35-year-old therapist. A secondary storyline develops about Lindsey’s own problems in the relationship department. But the movie opens up into an exploration of self and making tough decisions – part of what society has dubbed “adulting.”
How do people define relationships? What is the point of a relationship? What happens when both partners don’t want the same things? Pen Pals approaches those questions and others seriously but with a light touch. It’s like a series of late-night gab sessions with good friends, with and without alcohol involved.
Boeschen and Celozzi play off each other well, and they form a strong center for the film with their characters’ unlikely friendship. The only person whose acting equals theirs is Claire Goldhush, who plays Lindsey’s office assistant, Marcy. Goldhush projects delightful sidekick energy, but she might just deserve a movie of her own. Her vibe is in the same vein as a young Ally Sheedy or Parker Posey.
The rest of the cast, alas, feels strictly amateur. One winces at the stilted delivery of Downing and the other kids, but awkwardness isn’t limited to the youngsters. Barnett and the other adults are just as stiff, as are the actors playing Damien’s college classmates. Fortunately, the bulk of the 75-minute film focuses on Damien and Lindsey.
We Could Still Be Pen Pals feels like a mid-level feature that might play at a regional film festival. The production values and cinematography are pretty basic, and the singer-songwriter soundtrack at times is intrusive and grating. Lucas’ script is uneven, but it eventually finds a groove thanks to the short length and the two main characters.
