Lance Hammer's highly acclaimed Ballast is a painful, depressing experience. In fact, some could easily argue that it borders on audience torture. Ballast is not only bereft of a single laugh, there's not even a crack of a smile. It's about people who are no longer physically able to look on the bright side of life, and it features some of the most heart-wrenching dramatic material of the year. But to what end? What is the dramatic purpose of a movie like Ballast, a film that offers very little hope, redemption, character development, or potential salvation? I'm not the kind of critic that feels every movie needs a "purpose" or "greater meaning," but I felt somewhat abused by Ballast and wondered whether or not I should recommend an experience that is likely to make other viewers feel the same way. In the end, after letting the tragic, trouble characters in Ballast linger in my head for a few days and seeing a number of other movies, some great and some awful, I've decided that Hammer's dark film is worth your time. Leave the sharp objects at home and don't go if you're sleepy or depressed, but the fact that these characters have stuck with me while so many others have come and gone says something about what Hammer has accomplished. He may not achieve the cinematic poetry that I think he's going for, and there is still an abusive element to one of the most depressing films I've seen in years, but there's also a lingering power to Ballast that can't be denied.

Ballast opens with an overweight man named Lawrence (Micheal J. Smith Sr.) sitting in a living room as his twin brother's body decays in the bedroom right around the corner. A neighbor worried about both men - they haven't opened their freeway-stop convenience store in days - stops by and tries to help Lawrence, who goes to his own house next door and shoots himself in the chest. Lawrence doesn't die and decides to contact the ex-wife of his dead brother, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), and his nephew James (JimMyron Ross). Marlee works cleaning toilets and can barely make ends meet while James is so bored that the pre-teen decides to do crack and gets in trouble with some local drug dealers. When James discovers Lawrence, he robs him at gunpoint. Marlee moves into Lawrence's brother's house with James after a violent encounter with the drug dealers looking for the youngster, and these three incredibly damaged souls try to find something to hold on to while dealing with demons of the past. These aren't people looking for typical movie happiness. They're just looking for a reason to live.

The title of Ballast should give you some hint at the cinematic poetry that Hammer reaches for with his already highly lauded film. Ballast is just weight, not cargo, and these people are striving to find some reason to stay on board this ship we call the Earth. Hammer is clearly reaching for poetry more than prose. The film reminded me of David Gordon Green's superior George Washington on several occasions. But it almost feels like Hammer is trying too hard to be dramatically important and sacrifices cinema for its sake. There are conflicting tones in Ballast. It doesn't feel like realism. It's too consciously artistic to be considered such, but the material is so dark that it certainly couldn't be called entertainment either. Like the people it chronicles, the film sometimes falls through the cracks.

While I'm not sure of the purpose or intention of Ballast, it is a film that has, for lack of a less overused critical phrase, haunted me since I saw it. There's a deep sadness in Lawrence, Marlee, and James' eyes that is very hard to shake. These are the forgotten people of a major part of the country, and Ballast does give them resonance that a lot of movies have not been able to do. They're the convenience store workers that you drive by at 65 MPH. They're the toilet cleaners that you take for granted when you hit a rest stop. They're the kids with so little to do that crack seems enticing. They may be forgotten, but Ballast is a hard movie to let go.

Rating: THREE BONES

Reviewed by Brian Tallerico (MovieRetriever.com Film Critic)

Release Date: October 31st, 2008

Rating: R

Starring: Micheal J. Smith Sr., JimMyron Ross, and Tarra Riggs

Director: Lance Hammer

Writer: Lance Hammer