★★★½ (3½ out of 4)
It’s sad but true. Most people don’t go out to movie theaters any more to see quiet gems like “A Little Prayer.” We save those outings for superhero epics or sing-alongs with Kpop Demon Hunters. Well, folks, you’re missing something by not sharing “A Little Prayer” with an audience that still values human drama shot through with genuine feeling.
“You want something to love that’s all yours? You’ve never had children. They don’t belong to you, and they will break your heart.” Those words are spoken by Bill, the patriarch of a southern family who can’t help putting his heart on the line, almost on a daily basis. Bill is played by David Strathairn, an actor of grit, grace and a knack for never making a false move on camera.
Army-veteran Bill and his wife Venida (the ever-terrific Celia Weston) preside over a church-going, middle-class North Carolina family with problems besetting their adult children. Son David (Will Pullen) is an alcoholic who works at his father’s steel mill and is having an affair with office assistant Narcedalia (Dascha Polanco, of “Orange Is the New Black”).
This indiscretion pains Bill, who feels protectively close to his daughter-in-law, Tammy, played by a standout Jane Levy (“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”) whose inter-generational scenes with Strathairn give the film its easy humor and grieving soul. Both Bill and Tammy, who regards her father-in-law as a “kindred spirit,” respond emotionally to the voice of an unseen woman singing spirituals, a little prayer that others in their Winston-Salem neighborhood dismiss as an annoyance.
Bill is far less open with his son, also a military veteran and clearly suffering from PTSD, adding an awkwardness to the scenes in which Bill stiffly warns David to break off this affair, a complex relationship that Bill only understands on a superficial level. Tammy comprehends far more than she lets on.
Into this fraught atmosphere comes Bill and Venida’s jobless daughter, Patti (a powerhouse Anna Camp), with her young, daughter Hadley (Billie Roy) who copes mostly by staying silent. Patti is escaping an addict husband back home in Virginia and has issues her parents can’t begin to understand.
No wonder Bill and Tammy take solace in each other. Bill wrongly believes he can solve everyone’s problems and Strathairn lets Bill’s dawning realization that he cannot a thing of bruised beauty. Writer-director Angus MacLachlan, who scripted the 2005 indie hit “Junebug” with Amy Adams, has a masterful knack for using location to help define character. He also knows how to speak volumes in the space between words.
...[Y]ou’re missing something by not sharing 'A Little Prayer' with an audience that still values human drama shot through with genuine feeling.
It's a rare talent that suffuses every scene in “A Little Prayer.” And Strathairn, in one of his best performances, nails every nuance. Excellence is nothing new with this consummate actor; just check out his Oscar nominated role as newsman Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” his Hollywood slimeball turn in “L.A. Confidential," or his stellar work for director John Sayles in films as diverse as “Eight Men Out” and "Passion Fish."
Strathairn is at his very best in “A Little Prayer.” He and MacLachlan both work from the inside to create something intimate and indelible. It would be wrong to mistake their gentle approach to storytelling for softness since they never shrink from the hurt that comes with love, loss and the effort it takes to simply belong. Out of the deceptive simplicity of "A Little Prayer” comes a movie that stays with you long after you leave the theater. Let it in.