Bill (Robert John Burke), having had his heart broken one too many times, swears he’ll just bed the next woman he meets and throw her away. In fact, his last girlfriend dumped him when they were pulling a bank robbery.
His younger brother Dennis (Bill Sage) has not yet been ruined by love. He’s nearly obsessed with trying to track down their father, accused of a bombing in the 60s, who was captured but escaped again; dad’s a sort of folk hero to everyone but Bill, who can only see that the man abandoned his family. Mom now plans to leave him, but gives the sons an old photo and phone number of “Tara,” the only clue she may have to where dad may be. With only $20 between them, the guys head for Long Island to try to track dad down.
The brothers meet two women who may or may not know dad.
Elina (Elina Lowensohn), a Romanian eplileptic, seems to entrance Dennis who wants to befriend her. She’s very wary despite Dennis not really pressuring her into anything. Maybe he needs some mystery and wildness in his life.
Conversely, Bill meets Kate (Karen Sillas), an earthy gentle type, and he attempts to seduce her as he claimed he would, but it’s obvious he can’t act on his earlier anger; it’s not a seduction but something more emotional. She seems to need him around as much as he wants to stick around. Maybe he needs some stability and quietness.
Both tread lightly with their women, it’s the women whose actions and emotional states determine how far the men can go (and there is a discussion about Madonna that seems to echo this) and whether or not the men realize it or want it, they both fall in love.
There are several quirky characters that the brothers encounter in their search for their father (a catholic school nun and girl student, a mechanic learning French, a kooky guy with a motorcycle, a menacing fishmonger). To me it feels like a play where the main characters travel down a road and meet several strange characters along the way--a sort of journey to Oz only to find out there's no place like home. The dialogue is mostly stilted (hence the Mamet reference) but a bit lighter, not entirely romance, not entirely comedy, with a guitar riff that I think has been overdone in these quiet indie films. Curiously the feel of this one reminds me of Bagdad Café. This one may be an acquired taste.
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