Brave the Dark
Jared Harris plays a small-town high school teacher who makes a difference in the life of a troubled teen who no one else seems to want to give a second chance.
If you’ve been fortunate enough to have some great teachers, as I have, you understand how much of an impact they can have on you life. “Brave the Dark” is a paean to one such real teacher, Stan Deen, who taught dramatic arts at Garden Spot High School in Lancaster County, Penn., for nearly 40 years.
As played by Jared Harris (“Chernobyl”), Stan is a selfless sort, a glad-hander who seemingly knows every person in their small town. Everybody likes him, including his students and fellow faculty. A confirmed bachelor, there’s also a bit of sadness about him, a guy who thinks everybody is his friend, while on the other side they just consider him an agreeable acquaintance.
Set in 1986-87 and based on true events, “Brave” tells the story of Stan’s mentorship of a troubled teen, Nathan Williams (Nicholas Hamilton), a senior who’s gotten into all sorts of trouble. After Nate is busted for burglary of a local store, Stan takes it upon himself to visit the kid in prison and take up for him in his court case. Eventually, Nate comes to live with Stan so he can return to school.
The teacher is astonished to learn that Nate has been homeless for the past two years, sleeping in his old Camaro in whatever farm fields he can find, living off vending machines and school lunches, and running on the track team just because it affords him a place to shower up. Until his arrest, Nate passes himself off as a normal teen, even maintaining a relationship with a girlfriend, Tina (Sasha Bhasin).
Both Harris and Hamilton are terrific in their roles, with the latter making a big impression with his haunted gaze and sense of doom. Flashbacks, at first just snippets and then more drawn out, hint at major trauma in Nate’s boyhood, marked by the loss of his mother (Meredith Sullivan), when he was just 6 years old.
Stan went out to Hollywood as a youth and tried (and failed) to make it in the movies, hoping to become the next James Dean — joking that he already had the last name (nearly). Young Nate, who favors a black leather motorcycle jacket out of the ‘50s, clearly seems to be following unwittingly in the footsteps of the teen rebel.
Harris plays Stan very straight, almost corny in his disposition, a guy who eats too many donuts and falls in front of the TV, warbles along to records of Shakespearean performances and can barely bring himself to curse. His best (read: only) friend is Deborah (Kimberly S. Fairbanks), a fellow teacher and the only other adult around who’s willing to speak up on Nate’s behalf. All the rest of the faculty seem colossally indifferent to one of their flock falling through the cracks.
“Brave the Dark” comes from Angel Studios, a distributor of faith-based films. I guess you’d say this movie falls into that pack, though there’s hardly a hint of proselyting to be found. Rather, it’s just a simple story of regular people dealing with trauma, navigating an environment where kindness seems hard to find.
It was directed by Damian Harris (“The Rachel Papers”), Jared’s older brother, who also contributed to the screenplay, officially credited to Dale G. Bradley, who in turn based it on an unproduced script by John P. Spencer and Nathaniel Deen, the latter of whom based it on his own biography (and serves as an exec producer).
Though obviously low-budget, the film’s got a nice polish to it, crisp editing and a solid supporting cast.
If you’re worried about Stan harboring some sort of sexual appetite for Nate (I was), there’s nothing like that here. Stan truly seems to be just as well-meaning and generous of spirit as he seems. Their is acrimony in their relationship, especially when Nate inevitably screws up and starts returning to his wayward ways, influenced by his friend, Johnny (Will Price), a rich kid who escaped punishment for their burglary because Nate refused to snitch on him.
“You just took me in because you're lonely,” Nate accuses Stan, and it stings because there’s some truth to it. Stan had been caring for his sick mother for a number of years before she passed a few months earlier, and there’s an element of smothering to his nurturing — such as when he surprises Nate with a veritable pile of Christmas presents, which is overwhelming to a kid who never received one in his whole life.
“This too shall pass” is Stan’s favorite saying, or perhaps more like a mantra. He’s counseled hundreds of kids over the years with their problems, whether starring in a play or overcoming personal challenges, and he always tells them that no matter how bad things look, their perspective will eventually shift a year from now.
Nate is the one teen who comes along with problems deeper and darker than Stan’s advice can solve on its own, so he keeps pushing and probing. The middle section of the movie has a taste of redundancy to it, that perhaps some rewriting or judicious editing could have addressed.
There’s also a creepy cast to the way Nate keeps approaching Tina, who wants nothing to do with him post-arrest. It edges up to the line — and over — into stalker behavior, and it’s hard to sympathize with a guy who acts like he has rights to her attention and body.
The play they’re producing at the high school while all this is going on is “Flowers for Algernon,” which if you’re not familiar is the story of a mentally challenged man who turns into a genius through a medical experiment, and finds being smarter doesn’t make you any happier.
It’s a good question if a guy like Stan is truly happy, or just puts on the face of it for the world — and ultimately for himself. “Brave the Dark” is an interesting, if not always successful, look at how trying to be a light for others can also help you find your own way.