The Surface

The film is a true two-hander-and Astin and Mulkey are mostly up for the task-but inept storytelling sinks the picture faster than anyone can bail it out.

"The Surface" has such fine performances in it from Mulkey and Astin that you wish the filmmakers had trusted them more, letting them bring the film back to shore on their own.

Here's a four-word review of "The Surface": Go see "The Surface."

arry Hains' portrayal of "Evan", an orphaned 22 year old is quite sensitive in this melodrama about a lad searching for a sense of identity and for family. He buys an old movie camera and some films and sets about restoring them to discover they are about the family of the man he bought it from. This triggers in him a need for a sort of emotional freedom so he splits from his long term boyfriend and takes up with the son of the man who sold him the camera. It's a good looking, if hardly ground breaking, film that tries to deal with self-appreciation and longing; and it makes a decent fist of it.