Where The Day Takes You

Most people will agree that the primary purpose of motion pictures is to provide entertainment. While that in itself is a worthy even noble function movie can provide so much more. It can be story telling at its best extending literature in its ability to take the audience to places they otherwise would never be able to experience. Some of these places are as pleasant as a dream on a lazy summer morning while other will take us places of unimaginable hardship and cruelty. You might wonder why anyone would willingly sit through such a film but it is important for people to understand or at least be aware of the broadest possible view of the multifaceted human experience. While movie like this may be difficult at times to watch they can invoke empathy for our fellow citizens especially those whose lives have not reached their potential or have fallen on difficult times. The film ‘Where the Day Takes You’ is such a movie. It takes the audience to places in a bright, affluent city where most people don’t travel. It shows covert drug dens, back alley prostitution and low level crime that exist just beneath the thin veneer of acceptable society that few members of our society are even aware of. Watching this film is compelling; it is somewhat like seeing a traffic accident; it shows terrible events but you just can’t look away. It first came about to this film while channel surfing late one night. I stopped because of the youthful facts of now famous actors at the very dawn of their now illustrious careers, that was the superficial reason for stopping on that channel but what kept me glue to it was the sheer emotional power of the performances. The actors may have been just starting their careers but this movie demonstrated the enormous amount of raw talent this company of actors possessed.

The script was written by Michael Hitchcock, Kurt Voss and Marc Rocco, the later also directing. Hitchcock was more experienced in the lighter side of writing plying his craft on ‘MadTV’ and the made for television flick, ‘Problem Child 3: Junior in Love’. Voss and Rocco were more accustomed the penning crème thrillers. None of these resumes would give any indication of being able to write a script of such a gritty nature but perhaps it was the fresh vantage point that made the difference. In some ways this is a modernization of ‘Lord of the Flies’ following a society that is built by teens and children largely without the influence of adults. There are grown-ups in this inner city tale but mostly they occupy adversarial roles. This is the world that millions of runaway children endue on a daily basis. It sets the stage for a human drama to unfold that is so well crafted that it comes across almost as a documentary. This feel is greatly reinforced by the use of an interviewer played by Laura San Giacomo, binding the film’s numerous sub plots together.

One of the main themes in the film is that of family. Many of the kids on the street ran away from home because of some combination of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. They left because their family was a twisted shadow of what a family should be; harmful not nurturing. Still, there is a deep seated need especially at this age to belong and have numerous needs met by someone in a position of authority. For the street kids depicted here they drift together forming establishing their own surrogate family. At its head in his early twenties is King (Dermot Mulroney). He does his best to look out for the younger kids provide what in can in the way of food and shelter. He does appear to take this responsibility seriously by not giving in to the street norm avoiding drugs. he tries to guide his charges away from drugs and its constant companion, prostitution. The only other ways to make any money is a choice between petty theft and panhandling. King had recently been in jail and id now busy trying to reconnect the family. Most of the story centers on the kids just trying to get through the day. There are social pressures acting to rip the family apart coming from both external and internal sources. Revenge enters into the mix with King out to get Tommy Ray (Peter Dobson), who King hold responsible for the death of his girlfriend Devon. The temptation to earn a few dollars is exceptionally strong luring kids like Little J (Balthazar Getty) into gay prostitution. Sex and drugs are just two commodities for these kids.

The film is gritty, realistic and it will make you want to send your kids to a military school in the most remote part of the world. Above all else this is an emotional ride that will fully hold your attention.

Posted 10/12/09