Visually very nice and a really great premise, but that's it. The storytelling leaves huge gaps and, at times, you are left wondering: "When did that happen?".
It starts off very nicely and shows the closeness between Kevin and his best friend, his girlfriend and her father, the coach. Then disaster strikes in more ways than one.
Kevin goes back to school and, although it seems relevant to the story, we're never given the amount of time he was out or the reason he goes to a different school.
Meets a girl, or, as it is portrayed, a new girl forces herself on him. Although they tried to show Hannah as a nice girl who falls for the troubled guy and tries to help him, she comes off as a needy groupie chasing her idol, yelling: "We belong together, we belong together!"
His need for running is explained well enough, but everything else around it is inconsistent. The way he doesn't care about competing, yet the first thing he does after starting new school is join the team; hates it, but fights to stay on it; allows himself to get exploited by the grubby father-daughter team of Coyote and Lynskey.
The character of Jol, the new best friend is thrown in from time to time without any explanation. he just pops up and tells some of the things going on in his life and disappears.
All in all, not unwatchable, but you'll find yourself trying to fill the gaps and finding sense in what you saw.
Oh, and there is such thing as too much indie folk music. While it suited some of the scenes, the movie depended too much on it as a mood setter.
It starts off very nicely and shows the closeness between Kevin and his best friend, his girlfriend and her father, the coach. Then disaster strikes in more ways than one.
Kevin goes back to school and, although it seems relevant to the story, we're never given the amount of time he was out or the reason he goes to a different school.
Meets a girl, or, as it is portrayed, a new girl forces herself on him. Although they tried to show Hannah as a nice girl who falls for the troubled guy and tries to help him, she comes off as a needy groupie chasing her idol, yelling: "We belong together, we belong together!"
His need for running is explained well enough, but everything else around it is inconsistent. The way he doesn't care about competing, yet the first thing he does after starting new school is join the team; hates it, but fights to stay on it; allows himself to get exploited by the grubby father-daughter team of Coyote and Lynskey.
The character of Jol, the new best friend is thrown in from time to time without any explanation. he just pops up and tells some of the things going on in his life and disappears.
All in all, not unwatchable, but you'll find yourself trying to fill the gaps and finding sense in what you saw.
Oh, and there is such thing as too much indie folk music. While it suited some of the scenes, the movie depended too much on it as a mood setter.