Alex of Venice

Courtesy of Screen Media Films, Electric City Entertainment

Chris Messina is starting to become a force to be reckoned with. Though he has been a star of indie faire for the past ten years or so, he broke out in the Hulu (formerly Fox) show "The Mindy Project." In this indie film he is both the director and a bit player in a story of a young woman beginning again while still at the start of her life. Though it is a film we have all seen before, it is flavored by Messina's domineering presence, just off-screen.

 The story is a familiar one; of a woman stuck between a rock and a hard place. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the eponymous Alex, a woman who works constantly and doesn't have much time for her son and father (Johnson). Her husband picks up the slack as a stay at home dad (Messina) which puts pressure on their relationship. Their rift and subsequent separation leads Alex into a downward spiral as she tries to balance her family and work life, a new romance, and a flighty sister who arrives to stir up the action. The actress who plays the sister, Katie Nehra, actually co-wrote the screenplay for the film along with Jessica Goldberg and Justin Shilton.

 The best performance of the film actually comes from Don Johnson as a failing actor on the precipice of early onset Alzheimers. He falls between being a character that mirrors the stereotype of the absentee father, not able to keep promises, and that of the elder losing his grasp on the tenets of reality. It's a very moving and subtle performance that should gain the former Miami Vice actor some much earned prestige. While Winstead does an admirable job in the leading role there isn't anything authentic or new in her performance.

 The best thing about this film is the very simplistic and yet admirable ending, where Alex and her husband embrace their new roles and understand that their lives have invariably changed for the better. It's a very simple narrative that has been used in better films such as "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "The Squid and the Whale," but it's a happy ending that never tires. Films about unconventional families will always be popular because people need hope that their situations are a new form of normality that can be forgiven and accepted by society at large. For all its flaws "Alex of Venice" tells a story of new beginnings.