Pop Smart - Sundance review: Ballast

BALLAST

(USA, 2007, 96 min, color, 35mm)

Directed/written by Lance Hammer

Starring Michael J. Smith Sr., Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail

You are going to hear quite a bit about this film, and I will be honest, I cannot figure out why. It has affected me to such a degree that I will not be using contractions throughout this entire review. I want every word to be spelled out against the growing storm of enthusiasm for this film by first-time director Lance Hammer.

The story is simple, and that may be its greatest problem. Ballast is a movie about a tragedy and its affect on a small Mississippi family. There are three main characters who deserve our attention. We meet James first, a 12-year-old boy with too much time on his hands. Then there’s Lance Lawrence, an older man who shares ownership of a local store with his twin brother Darius. Tragedy slips in when Lance Lawrence finds his brother dead, having committed suicide for some reason we are never adequately given.

Perhaps living in rural Mississippi is enough. Ballast does do a good enough job of emphasizing the monotony of such an existence. No one expresses this better than our third character, Marlee, a struggling single mother who pays for her trailer and son James’ motorbike gas by scrubbing toilets all day.