Heartland: Brave the Dark
True-life two-hander elevated by powerful central performances.
For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here.
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I didn’t know much about “Brave the Dark” going into it, but I was impressed and moved by this picture that’s inspired by a true story.
Nate (Nicholas Hamilton, he was Henry Bowers in “It”) is your run-of-the-mill high school student. He runs track. He’s got a girlfriend named Tina (Sasha Bhasin) and a buddy named Johnny (Will Price) with whom he hangs. Nate has a secret beneath the surface however – he’s homeless and living out of his car. He runs track so he has access to a shower.
Nate gets himself into a good deal of trouble after he breaks into an electronics store and steals stereos with Johnny hoping to fence ‘em. Nate gets pinched at school and is subsequently expelled. Johnny gets away scot-free as Nate’s unwilling to finger him for their collective crime.
Intervening on Nate’s behalf is Stan Deen (Jared Harris), a kindly and popular English and drama teacher at Nate’s school. Not only does Stan use his connections to convince the Judge (Daisy Galvis) to give Nate a lighter sentence and smooths things over with his parole officer Barney (Jamie Harris) – he also invites the young man to live with him at his home and gets him readmitted to school.
As directed by Damian Harris (he’s Jared and Jamie’s older brother and helmed the 1990s thrillers “Deceived” and “Bad Company”) “Brave the Dark” isn’t a perfect film (it’s a tad overlong at 122 minutes and has some repetitive beats – especially ones involving the character of Tina), but it’s a hugely moving and powerful one. It’s ultimately a two-hander between Jared’s Stan and Hamilton’s Nate and both performers really come to play. Each actor brings great sensitivity to their role and their scenes together are easily the movie’s best. The script (written by Dale G. Bradley, the real-life Nathaniel Deen, Harris, Lynn Robertson Hay and John P. Spencer) goes to some surprisingly dark and shocking places and Jared and Hamilton are more than up to this challenging material.
“Brave the Dark” is a stirring reminder that we’re all better off when someone steps in to stop a kid from falling through cracks. The way in which Stan opened his heart and his home to Nate allowed this young man to turn his sad situation into one where he could be of service to others. Bring a Kleenex or 12.