A Light Beneath Their Feet

A Light Beneath Their Feet

It is a shame that youth-oriented movies are often so simplistic when there is nothing simple about being a teenager. “The Choice,” this year’s adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, treated its viewers like sad children whose pet lizard just died. Rather than addressing the difficult questions it posed itself, the movie solved them with a tacky deus ex machina in its final minutes, trivializing the title decision.

Valerie Weiss’s “A Light Beneath Their Feet” could have been called “The Choice,” too; its characters face unanswerable questions. But just as Ms. Weiss picked a more specific title, the film is much deeper than it seems at first glance even though that first glance is pretty deep for a teen movie.

All the typical genre signifiers are here: mean girls, gorgeous loners, a soundtrack full of songs by artists you’ll want to check out later and even one prom sequence too many. And they’re all lies. There are no heroes and villains or freaks and geeks in this story, just people regular people who want to act normal.

At the center of everything is Beth (Madison Davenport), an Evanston Township High School senior who doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up because she has trouble believing that growing up will ever happen. Her mother, Gloria (Taryn Manning), was diagnosed with bipolar disorder years ago and it destroyed her marriage “I loved her but I needed to leave her,” Beth’s father (Brian King) tells her matter-of-factly; anyone who has ever lived with someone similarly afflicted will recognize that moment as honest to God True.

He doesn’t live in their house anymore because he had to get away from her sometimes abyssal needs; now Beth lives in their house all day every day trying to meet them herself. She’s been taking care of Gloria for years already when we meet her, and she’s about to have to take care of her for the rest of her life or at least that’s how it feels. Beth is planning on attending Northwestern University, which is just down the street from their house in Evanston, but secretly dreams of going to U.C.L.A., where L.A.’s weather patterns would give her a much-needed break from Chicago’s temperature swings and Gloria’s mood swings.

The fact that it makes Gloria happy when Beth says she wants to go anywhere near Evanston naturally makes Beth really not want to.

Weiss and screenwriter Moira McMahon have never explored the dynamics of a loving relationship that is also unhealthy with such tenderness and understanding as they do here. Neither mother nor daughter ever question the depth or durability of their love; Gloria, having had Beth when she was very young, even comments that sometimes they look like twins ” especially in a shot where they pose together in front of a store window, laughing at their reflections matching hats and poses included until Beth’s smile fades as she realizes that she will be just like her mother if she stays by her side.

When Gloria says that she can take care of herself, it is almost an accusation: She only stays on her meds because it’s what’s best for you. Otherwise, why bother swallowing pills that make your days feel diluted? I thought of the bipolar couple in Paul Dalio’s wonderful “Touched With Fire,” who fall deeply in love when they go off their meds together under some kind of Van Gogh-inflected starry night; I think Gloria sees those same stars while lying on the floor.

But what Gloria doesn’t know is that nobody else but herself has to be on her meds in order for her to get better. Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron finds subtle ways to frame these women so that their positions seem reversed by family for instance, when Beth drops Gloria off and waves goodbye from behind the steering wheel (like a mom seeing her kid off to school). The performances Weiss draws out of both actresses are tremendous.

So much emotion flickers across Davenport’s face from one moment to another; longing and heartbreak can be seen there with nothing more than a slight twitch somewhere around the eyes or mouth. Manning, too an actress who can chew scenery along with anyone else (just watch “Orange Is the New Black”) knew better than to give us anything like caricature or crowd pleasing quirkiness here. That wouldn’t have been right for Gloria, and she doesn’t go there.

All that restlessness and impulsiveness; all those empty expressions when their minds are blanketed by illness she nails the one-two punch of bipolar disorder’s effects on people like me. When you’re this kind of caregiver, sometimes the best thing to do is hold on tight so he (or in this case, she) can’t hurt himself anymore, and that’s exactly what Beth does during one scary episode.

These two characters are so engrossing, so realized that one could have seen a version of the movie built only around them. When Beth and Gloria are together, the rest of the world ceases to exist. But withdraws its arm into their snug cocoon, suggesting they order takeout and eat in the car rather than dine inside a restaurant, Gloria digs in her heels; try as she may. And it’s a credit to the film makers that more people enter this story without it feeling contrived or like any one of them is just who they appear to be upon first sight.

Jeremy (Carter Jenkins), Beth’s crush, has been made persona non grata by his peers and resigned to spend his high school days on the outskirts of town because he doesn’t want to have to talk to anyone. Some of these scenes are at an ice cream parlor where Beth works and she’s not just jealous but acts increasingly aggressive towards him if Evan Paglieri sees Jeremy locking eyes with his smitten coworker (or softy whimpers I love you after beth leaves).

Daschulla (Maddie Hasson), who used to date Jeremy, is the closest thing this movie has for a “villain,” but she’s as hurt as anyone else here and ultimately takes action against her father (Kurt Fuller) a psychiatrist that pays more attention to his patients than his own daughter. Each scene finds just the right note for McMahon never overwriting moments that could have easily dribbled off into expositional overkill; when Daschulla looks at her father and says “You didn’t do anything” speaks volumes.

A triumph of empathetic filmmaking, “A Light Beneath Their Feet” will enthrall those viewers simply looking for a coming of age yarn it has one of the most beautiful prom scenes in recent memory but for viewers like myself who can personally relate to this story and have had to answer the same questions, it will bring catharsis, tears and maybe a few epiphanies. I didn’t so much “get” this film as it got me.

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