This modest film has the feel of "Manchester By the Sea," but without the over-the-top melodrama. Set in a small New England village, the film follows the lives of three buddies reunited at the time of the death of one of their dads. There are some touching and heartfelt moments in this well-crafted slice of life of dysfunctional New Englanders.

We see the action primarily through the eyes of Jon, the former high school quarterback and erstwhile writer. Jon is about to give up his fishing vessel, the Mandy Lynn, and commit himself to full-time writing.

While Jon has the touch of the poet, Sam is a hard-working realtor, who was divorced from Kate, another one of the close connections to all the characters from high school. Sam is dedicated to supporting his daughter, but struggles with loneliness and must face an episode of premature ejaculation in a long night on the Mandy Lynn.

Dave is the playboy who left town. After a failed stint in Las Vegas, he is now residing in Arizona. It is Dave's father who died and for whose funeral he has reluctantly returned to the Massachusetts fishing village. In a moment of confessional, Dave opens up to Jon about the affair he once had with Kate.

Jon is outraged because he feels that the Dave's affair was an affront to Sam, despite the fact that Sam and Kate were separated at the time. A shortcoming of the film was to unconvincingly depict women who fall for Dave and become emotionally enmeshed with essentially a loser.

One of the more interesting scenes was a therapy session, wherein Jon lets loose a rare outburst of anger in an act of self-loathing. As a gifted writer with a New Age girlfriend, it puzzling why he seemed so disconnected from himself. It is also not clear if his therapy will make a difference. One also wonders how he is able to pay for a therapist.

One of the strengths of the film is that we are never given pat answers to the dysfunction in the characters' lives. We do not learn why Dave left town, other than his father was a philanderer. We never learn what was the emotional connection between Kate and Dave. We never learn why the women flock to him. Those deep, dark secrets appear to be known only to the Mandy Lynn.

Jon, a former high school football star returns home to the small fishing village of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He was an arrogant, useless jerk in high school, and returns a failed, arrogant, useless jerk.

We start with layer upon layer of cliché. Will there be any evolution, or is this just another fouled up, self-regarding 'feel bad comedy'?

Dave is back from Arizona to talk to old friends and catch up with his mother.

Jon is trying to get into something new, perhaps writing. He arranges to quit his fishing job as soon as he can find a replacement. He's in two kinds of therapy.

The obligatory drunken barroom and getting high scenes are just as boring as one might expect. Jon, Dave, and Sam are not any better at it than any one else.

Sam has stayed in Fairhaven (as opposed to Jon and Dave),has gotten married, had a daughter, got a divorce, and dealt with the break up. Nobody seems to be any happier than anyone else.

The funeral for Dave's father was nicely awkward.

The ending was flat, rather like the rest of the film.

Cinematography: 10/10 Exceptionally lovely shooting, especially the exteriors. Depth of field is shallow for the interiors to isolate the character to focus on, showing a nice level of control. Framing and color saturation are great.

Sound: 8/10 Occasionally the music was blaring.

Acting: 4/10 The performances are all too often from the 'smile, show how cool you are' school of non-involvement. Boring, non-engaging.

Screenplay: 4/10 Stupid premise, bad execution, boring; not aided by immature actors.

I feel like I've seen a version of this film so many times. White person goes home to semi-gritty Northeastern town for funeral/other issue, meets up with those who stayed, they all have problems.

The cinematography is nice but it's not stunning, and it's certainly not Night of the Hunter (seriously, other reviewer?).