Kin

Kin

Starring Myles Truitt, Jack Reynor, Zoe Kravitz, James Franco

Directed by Jonathan & Josh Baker

The Story:
Eli (Myles Truitt) is the adopted son of Hal (Dennis Quaid), and his older brother Jimmy (Jack Reynor) just got paroled from prison.  Jimmy owes money to a gang of thieves led by Taylor (James Franco), and they decide to rob Hal's business to get the money.

Things get out of hand, and Jimmy takes Eli on a cross-country road trip to escape.  Before all this happened, Eli found a mysterious weapon in an abandoned building, and discovers it has some very lethal charges.  Unbeknownst to the brothers, they're being chased by the cops, Taylor and his men, and two mysterious soldiers who are on the hunt for the weapon.

The Synopsis:
Jonathan and Josh Baker are brothers who are making their directorial debut with "Kin," based off a short film they produced called "Bag Man."  The film focuses on a unique family dynamic, wrapped in a sci-fi mystery, with a road trip thrown in for good measure.  The film tries to be a lot of different things, and along they way they loose sight on whatever their main point was supposed to be.  It's unfortunate, because after seeing the trailer I was dying to see it, and while I really wanted to call this a success, at best I can say it's mediocre.

The story goes in different directions, and the pacing is off-kilter from the start.  After Eli's criminal brother comes back home, things hit the fan in super quick succession, but then there's a long lull between the excitement at the beginning and the inevitable fiery conclusion.  The film seems to want to focus on the relationship between Eli and his brother Jimmy, but they do so in an incredibly boring way - especially since Eli has this alien weapon that can disintegrate anything in its path.  

There's two things that the film does best, and the first is the effects.  For a low-budget spectacle, it sure uses some fascinating effects in a way that doesn't look gimmicky or stale, and actually becomes believable within the story.  The other good thing the film does is introduce us to newcomer Myles Truitt, who plays young Eli.  He gives a great performance as a kid who could go either on the wrong side or right side of the tracks, depending on who he listens to - his by-the-books father, or wayward brother.  There's moments that Truitt's performance truly shines, as he moves from confident to insecure, from happy to outraged in a way that not even some polished professionals could pull off.  There's a strong future for this young actor, as long as he keeps his eyes on the prize and doesn't fall into the pitfalls of other child actors.

There's a few things the film does really badly, including the aforementioned pacing.  After Jimmy has a deadly run-in with Taylor, he goes on the run with Eli, all the while lying to him about why (as if he'll never find out), and spends the majority of the film trying to be the perfect bigger brother, but failing miserably at every turn.  Jack Reynor, who plays Jimmy, doesn't really land his performance and becomes an insufferable person which leaves you rooting more for Taylor to end him as soon as he could.

The film is also hindered by its PG-13 rating, yet they seemed to want to get the R-rating.  Jimmy takes Eli to a strip club (again, brother of the year), but of course there's no nudity.  Eli has a gun that could literally take off heads and turn people to dust, but we hardly see it in use.  Even the finale was rather bloodless despite everything that happened.

Speaking of the ending, it was an absolute mess.  Even though we're supposed to suspend our disbelief due to the sci-fi aspect of the film, not even that can excuse the totally implausible events of the finale - and I'm not even talking about the big twist they bring in the end.  This twist is supposed to bring everything to a head, but instead we're left scratching our heads wondering how it all fits in with the story as a whole, before deciding it's not worth sacrificing any brain cells to figure it out.

The Summary:
Despite an intriguing premise and a strong solid performance by an up-and-coming child actor, "Kin" fails to deliver any genuine thrills and chills, rendering itself inept due to a PG-13 rating, providing a disjointed script, and an ending so impractical and nonsensical it's almost unbelievable.

The Score: C