By George & Josh Bate
Many filmmakers draw on autobiographical details of their lives to inform the stories and themes of their projects. Steven Spielberg did so a few years ago with The Fabelmans, the acclaimed film which saw the Academy Award winning filmmaker use cinema as a way to process complicated elements of his upbringing. Kenneth Branagh, Alfonso Cuarón, and Celine Song are just some of the directors in the last few years who have created similarly moving autobiographical movies.
For all these filmmakers, there is presumably a healing quality to use cinema as a therapeutic device through which film one can come to terms with the trials and tribulations of key junctures of their life. Tom Bell, the lead character in the new film Westhampton, does exactly that, although his difficulties coming to terms with his actions and his blurring of the lines between reality and fiction stir trouble.
Marking the feature directorial debut of Christian Nilsson, Westhampton stars Finn Wittrock as Tom Bell, a filmmaker who has recently completed and released a semi-autobiographical film that depicts a car crash that forever changed the life of his high school girlfriend Beth. Years after the tragic incident, Tom is forced to return to his hometown of Westhampton, where he faces townspeople who are far from welcoming and hold grudges toward Tom for what they perceive to be a failure to take responsibility for his actions. As Tom navigates a hostile time back home, he crosses paths with the brother of his high school girlfriend (Jake Weary), a teenage girl who is drawn to him (Amy Forsyth), an old friend (RJ Mitte), and more.
Westhampton could easily be a solemn, even bleak watch due to the nature of its subject matter. A troubled filmmaker burdened by a fateful decision in his adolescence returns home to the scene of the tragedy and comes face to face with the people he wronged. Sounds like the set-up for a challenging watch and a far cry from what one would consider a crowdpleaser.
Thankfully, writer and director Christian Nilsson subverts making his debut feature an unforgiving, depressing watch by employing fairly brisk pacing and landing on a tone that weaves in just the right amount of levity. Westhampton is still not a crowd-pleaser – every scene centers around a rude and rather off-putting man, who clearly did something that most others perceive to be wrong. And yet the film manages to be a surprisingly breezy watch, especially when assessed in the context of its subject matter.
Two-time Emmy nominee Finn Wittrock plays the film’s protagonist, who features in virtually every moment of the story. Wittrock has assembled quite the filmography to date, with stellar performances in American Horror Story and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story being among the actor’s finest work. He somehow remains woefully underappreciated, however, a sentiment that becomes all the more evident upon watching Westhampton.
In one of the film’s first scenes, Wittrock’s Tom Bell punches the moderator of a Q&A in the face. At one point, he walks away from a physically disabled woman on the ground, rather than help her. He is unreservedly a flawed character, yet one that Wittrock plays with such authenticity and honesty that it is difficult not to somehow still root for him.
Tom has clearly lived years of his life trying to reckon with a single night of his adolescence and ultimately turned to filmmaking as a way to come to terms with everything. But things aren’t that simple. The film that Tom made, also titled Westhampton, blends reality and fiction, so much so that he repeatedly mentions that his movie is not based on a true story. Every step of the way, however, as we learn more about what actually happened that night both through conversations and snippets of Tom’s film, it appears as if his movie is accurately retelling the events of his adolescence.
So why is it that Tom insists his movie is not factual? This question looms large over Westhampton and, when it is eventually answered, gives way to a poignant and surprising third act. Nilsson confronts how the truth can be manipulated into fiction to provide more satisfactory outcomes than what actually transpired. He explores how one even begins to move forward, while sitting with the reality that they robbed another of the ability to move forward. It is far more nuanced than a film about growth, forgiveness, and closure; Nilsson’s film does something decidedly different from Spielberg, Song, and the other aforementioned filmmakers in depicting the healing properties of art – he interrogates the fictions we tell ourselves that make the harshest of realities livable.
Westhampton is ultimately more thought-provoking than it is moving, although an unexpected heart creeps into the film in the form of RJ Mitte’s Fitz. The actor known for his role as Walter White Jr. in Breaking Bad plays the only person in Westhampton who does not treat Wittrock’s Tom with disdain. Instead, Fitz is friendly, helpful, and enthusiastic in his behavior toward a man everyone else vilifies. Although the film doesn’t get into the depths of Fitz’s psyche, it ultimately arrives on something rather beautiful with Fitz and Tom’s relationship and demonstrates how endearing and healing it is to have a caring and non-judgmental figure in one’s life.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
Westhampton follows the likes of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and Celine Song’s Past Lives in telling a story about a filmmaker who uses filmmaking as a means to process and come to terms with some of the most difficult parts of his life. Writer and director Christian Nilsson’s feature directorial debut dabbles in heavy subject matter, ranging from growth, forgiveness, and closure to interrogating the fictions we tell ourselves that make the harshest of realities livable. However, with a deft handling of tone, Nilsson avoids plummeting his film into bleak and depressing territory by weaving in the perfect amount of levity and employing brisk pacing. Finn Wittrock does remarkably well to make an off-putting and, at times, rude character likable by bringing incredible authenticity and emotional honesty to the role. RJ Mitte, meanwhile, sneaks up as the film’s unexpected heart as the sole character in the film does not view Wittrock’s lead with disdain. Perhaps more than anything, Westhampton succeeds in offering a peek behind the curtain of filmmakers like Spielberg and Song, who have used movies as a way to heal from life’s most difficult experiences.