A teacher helping a troubled student is one of the more durable film genres. Stand and Deliver, Good Will Hunting, Dangerous Minds, The Great Debaters, To Sir With Love, all the way back to Goodbye, Mr. Chips these largely sentimental dramas proved reliably popular with moviegoers.
Brave the Dark doesn’t have much to add to the formula apart from the conviction of its lead, Jared Harris, and a script that walks a tightrope between objectivity and euphemism.
Released by Angel Studios and co-written by one of the characters depicted in the story, the movie is smoothly entertaining and entirely predictable. It delivers a positive message without acknowledging the more awkward elements of its story. That makes it perfect for viewers who don’t want to be challenged by anything beyond the superficial.
High schooler Nate Williams (Nicholas Hamilton) has hidden from his classmates in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that he is an orphan living in his car. But Stan Deen (Jared Harris), a teacher and director of school plays, notices that something is wrong. He slips Nate treats like candy bars to help him through classes.
Nate has interests in track and photography, and pursues classmate Tina (Sasha Bhasin). But untrustworthy friends draw him to petty crimes. In a humiliating scene, Nate’s arrested in front of the school for breaking and entering.
Nate takes the blame for his friends’ actions, and as a result faces a long prison sentence. A worried Deen involves himself in the case, contacting Nate’s grandparents. With Deen’s help, Nate avoids prison as long as he reports to a parole officer.
Flashbacks gradually reveal a tragedy in Nate’s past. Furthermore, his grandparents remove him from school and put him to work to pay off his bail.
Instead, Deen takes Nate into his home, where the two form an uneasy relationship. It turns out Deen is still mourning the death of his mother, while Nate’s past makes it impossible for him to trust anyone.
Hemmed in by Deen’s rules, forbidden to date Tina, Nate reverts to causing trouble. After a fight with Deen, Nate even considers suicide. Only when the full story of his past is revealed can the people around him understand how to help.
Although shot on a low budget, Brave the Dark has a good feel for small town Pennsylvania in 1986. Characterizations are adequate, if thin, while the plotting remains relatively realistic. While hardly original, Nate’s struggles build up a fair amount of narrative suspense.
Hamilton, who appeared in the two It features, doesn’t find a way to flesh out Nate’s role. To be honest, it’s a tough part for anyone to play, given the screenplay’s skin-deep approach to real-life incidents.
As Stan Deen, Jared Harris is in desperate need of direction. He wrings his hands, cocks his head, sighs, and generally tries to externalize his character through physical tics. At the same time, no one in the film acknowledges the red flags surrounding Deen.
On one hand, it’s a sign of progress that a film can include a character like Deen without pigeonholing him as gay. On the other hand, the idea of a high-school teacher housing a student in these circumstances is so troubling that it seems both tone-deaf and irresponsible for the filmmakers not to address the subject.
Perhaps that’s because Nate, who later took Deen’s surname, is one of the several screenwriters on this project. Or maybe director Damian Harris decided not to involve his younger brother Jared in those aspects of the story.
Credits: Directed by Damian Harris. Screenplay by Dale G. Bradley, Lynn Robertson-Hay, Nathaniel Deen, John P. Spencer, Damian Harris. Produced by Grant Bradley, Derek Dienner, Dale G. Bradley. Director of photography: Julio Macat. Production designer: Michael C. Stone. Edited by Toby Yates. Cast: Jared Harris, Nicholas Hamilton, Jamie Harris, Sasha Bhasin, Will Price, Kimberly Fairbanks.
Opens theatrically January 24, 2025. Photos courtesy Angel Studios. Photo credit: Joseph Gidjunis.
