This film opens in NYC October 1st 2008, and much wider later on. It was written and directed by Lance Hammer, and has won a slew of awards (most notably the directing and cinematography awards at Sundance).It's hard to give an opinion on a film like this, which admittedly is not concerned with plot, or storytelling. Rather, its sole intent is to create a mood or tone. This tone, quite overtly is grey and gloomy.
The plot involves rural Mississippi, where a man has committed suicide. His estranged son and the son's mother are left to deal with the man's twin brother. The plot is a bit more complicated, but honestly, plot is irrelevant.
The film begins with a beautiful sequence, and introduces us to interesting places and people, but then it doesn't deliver much of a story. This gets incredibly frustrating as provoking situations lead to empty questions and an unfulfilled feeling. I began to feel misled by the director.
The film seems to be in search of some greater truth, or realness in it's characters, but I stopped believing in the characters and got bored by the constant gloom. There is something inherently false about cinema, and trying to create something otherwise is futile.
The film also does away with any traditional soundtrack, with no score, or obvious sound design. I believe that a nice soundtrack does not have to be heavy-handed or 'telling the audience what to feel'. Rather, the creative use of sound is just another tool in a director's arsenal.
With all of this being said, Ballast is incredibly well crafted, well shot and clearly means a lot to the eloquent Lance Hammer. I'm glad that there are people like him crafting films like this, it's just not my cup of tea.
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