The Harvest

John McNaughton's The Harvest starts out as a human drama about two lonely children who meet, and help each other to come out of their shells.  One is a sickly young boy who seldom leaves his house, and spends most of his time looking out his bedroom window.  The other is a girl the same age as him, who has just moved to town and has no friends.  As the two bond, some darker layers of the story and the boy's home are unraveled, and the film subtly yet effortlessly switches to an effective psychological thriller.

The sick young boy is Andy (Charlie Tahan).  He is mostly bound to his wheelchair or bedridden, and often dreams of being strong enough to go outside and play, or perhaps go to school like other kids. (He is home-schooled by his mother.) The girl, Maryann (Natasha Calis), has just moved to town after the death of her parents.  She is living with her grandparents (Peter Fonda and Leslie Lyles), and is not thrilled about her new school or the kids there.  While out exploring her new neighborhood, she comes upon Andy's house, and takes an interest in the boy when she peers inside his bedroom window.  She invites herself in by opening his window, and introduces herself.  The two bond over talk of baseball and video games, and before long, they are best friends.  Andy's mom, Katherine (Samantha Morton) walks in on them, and is surprised to see her son with this girl.  Surprised, and perhaps even a bit suspicious.  Maybe angry.  We can't put our finger on it, but something is off.

Katherine is overly protective of her son, and she seems determined to shield him from every aspect of the outside world, except for the few select things that she allows Andy to be exposed to.  She fears that Andy's illness is getting worse, and he is close to dying.  Katherine's husband, Richard (Michael Shannon), seems to be long-suffering the moment we lay eyes on him.  He quit his job as a nurse so that he could look after their son 24-7, except when he goes on errands to get more life-saving medication for the boy.  He meets an old friend, a woman, in order to pick up the medication, and there are hints of an affair.  Katherine and Richard's marriage is clearly hanging by a thread, but they hold on for Andy's sake.  They don't argue in front of him.  But now, Maryann has arrived, and she keeps on coming to visit Andy every day.  Richard is fine with this, and happy that their son finally has someone to talk to.  But Katherine almost seems to view the girl as a threat that needs to be dealt with.

Through plot details too complicated to summarize, Maryann finds herself trapped in the house during one of her secret visits to Andy, and is forced to duck in the basement when Katherine comes home unexpectedly.  It's at this point when Maryann discovers what Andy's parents are doing in the basement that the movie switches gears from a drama about a broken family, to a disturbing thriller that puts the parents, especially Katherine, in a completely different light.  I'm not going to spoil what's down there, but it's an effective and surprising shock that I did not see coming.  The Harvest has spent the past hour being a quiet and character-driven piece that this discovery not only changes our view of the characters, but also the entire tone of the film itself.  And while it is not quite perfect (I had an issue with how determined Maryann's grandparents were about not believing her, or even refusing to listen to her or let her speak when she tries to tell them what she saw.), it still manages to create some genuine tension.

In order for a small and intimate thriller such as this to succeed, the performances have to be believable, and this is fortunately the case here.  The two young actors in the lead roles are likable, and create a believable friendship.  They talk and act like real kids, and even when the plot goes into thriller territory, they never come across like tiny adults.  They are frightened, and not quite sure how to deal with the truth.  As Andy's parents, Samantha Morton could have easily hammed up her performance and gone into total "Mommy Dearest" mode, and while she's not exactly subtle, she doesn't go so far over the top that she oversells it.  The best performance in the film belongs to Michael Shannon, though.  He gets the best role, as his Richard is conflicted between staying by his wife's side, and giving his son a chance to live a normal life where he's not constantly under their thumb.  His performance is a mixture of tragedy and terror, and he does a great job of letting his character's pain and confusion across, even when he doesn't have any dialogue. 

The Harvest was actually finished back in 2013, and has been playing the film festival circuit the past couple years and building word of mouth.  It's now being released in an extremely small theatrical release, but it can be downloaded through Video On Demand.  If you're in the mood for a quiet thriller that gradually builds, it's worth seeking out.  For anyone who has suffered through such recent mainstream attempts at thrillers like Ouija or The Lazarus Effect, this should prove a decent antidote.

See the theater times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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