POSTER ART FOR upcoming film “ERIC LaRue.”
Noted actor and Steppenwolf favorite Michael Shannon directs an adaptation of Brett Neveu’s 2002 play about a mother coping with the fallout after her son murders three of his high school classmates.
Janice LaRue (Judy Greer) is struggling; she moves through life as if in a haze, unable to let go of her anger and frustration. While her husband Ron (Alexander Skarsgård) has found refuge at a new church of the Redeemer faith, and Janice finds it hard to seek solace in her faith, despite her pastor’s pleas to heal her wounds by meeting with the mothers of her son’s victims.
In the film “ERIC LaRue,” both parents are seeking answers from churches that conflict with each other’s convictions.
As Janice ponders what meeting with grief-stricken mothers could achieve for her and her community, “ERIC LaRue” asks audiences to witness the frayed emotional ripples that violent acts can engender.
The Redeemer pastor likened letting Jesus into your heart as a cluttered home, and Jesus helps with the heavy lifting to clear a safe path.
Ron is a member of the Redeemer church and chats with a mom whose son was killed. She assures Ron that her son Nathan is jn paradise and he’s bathing in Christ’s eternal light. She urges Ron to be happy for her son and herself.
Meanwhile, as Janice meets with the moms, the pastor of the Presbyterian church starts, without reading the room, asking the two moms who showed up how they were doing.
He abruptly stops Janice from apologizing, saying that apologies don’t start conversations—they end them. But she is adamant about offering some consolation in an attempt to atone for her son’s actions.
He is just so daft in this circumstance, in my opinion. The mom talks about the condition in which her son was left after the shooting.
During this grieving mom’s retelling of her son’s dire condition, the pastor answers a call jn the middle of this conversation and has to end the meeting. He proceeds to lightly chastise the parents under the cloak of encouraging them to attempt to heal. What is that?
His take in the grieving and redemption process seems to be less spiritual than the road that the husband is taking at his congregation.
There are many moving parts in the film—one major one is the thought that maybe folks should just move along after these tragic events.
But folks can’t just move along, equally particularly the parents of the shooter and especially the parents who have lost their children to senseless violence that just won’t stop.
Janice LaRue hadn’t much gone into her son’s bedroom and at a good point as the film progressed hadn’t been able to visit him in the maximum security prison in which he’s being held. Is it because she feels if she visits that Eric might view that as an act of forgiveness on her part?
Can she forgive her son for such a heinous crime?
This is a deeply spiritual film just in time for the Holidays, for those who believe.
But it’s a sad film, given the ease at which teens are able to access guns in America and exact carnage on innocent children.
“ERIC LaRue” opens on April 4 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. For info, visit https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/
Enjoy a sneak peek at the trailer: https://youtu.be/G5lezhfsK2U?si=eKE5CkQM2hzxqiTA.
Elaine Hegwood Bowen, M.S.J., is the Entertainment Editor for the Chicago Crusader. She is a National Newspaper Publishers Association Entertainment Writing’ award winner, contributor to “Rust Belt Chicago” and the author of “Old School Adventures from Englewood: South Side of Chicago.” For info, Old School Adventures from Englewood-South Side of Chicago (lulu.com)