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A provocative, enlightening and interesting film, "Natural Selection" is a film that isn't afraid to take dramatic risks.
"Selection" stars Rachael Harris in a tour-de-force performance as Linda White, a Texas housewife and devout Christian entering middle age, whose husband, Abe (John Diehl), won't her touch because she is unable to bear children.
So she lives the life of guilt that only a strict Christian upbringing can instill — a lonely, sexless, unfulfilling marriage and steadfast resolution that her chaste life is obviously God's will.
Then Abe has a stroke while visiting the sperm bank that, apparently, he's been visiting regularly over the past 20 years. In a moment, Linda's life is shattered; not only is her husband "cheating" on her, but, she finds out, he has a grown son living in Florida — a result of one of his sperm-bank deposits.
So Linda, not knowing how much time her husband has left to live, hits the road to find Raymond (Matt O'Leary), a listless trailer dweller with a foul mouth, a drug problem and as little direction in life as Linda.
He reluctantly goes with her to find his long-lost father, which is to say the police come knocking to serve a warrant, and Linda finds herself simultaneously repulsed by and connected to Raymond.
Meanwhile, Linda and Abe's pastor (Jon Gries; yes, Uncle Rico from "Napoleon Dynamite") is worried about Linda's sudden departure and follows her. We get more than a little hint that he carries a flame for her, though he's married himself.
Writer/director Robbie Pickering isn't afraid to make bold, brash decisions with his characters, leading them to decisions that a mainstream Hollywood film would be afraid to even broach, much less carry through. And yet each of these decisions is the correct one, culminating in a pitch-perfect ending that is less than satisfactory but is ultimately the right one for the characters.
Pickering also transitions well from the sillier aspects of the film into the more serious ones, a credit to his scriptwork and the actors' performances. Again, a lesser picture would paint caricatures of each of these rural bumpkin-like characters, but here each of them are fully fleshed. Abe is portrayed as a good man; Linda is wholly good but makes some very morally questionable decisions; Raymond is despicable in many ways and at times when his better traits are called on, they're not always all good. The result is a film that feels packed full of real people with real problems, not h0llow archetypes that represent a shallow aspect of humanity.
Harris is stunning, imbuing Linda with the perfect mix of empathy and pathos. She's a character at whose backwardness you can chuckle, but feel much too ashamed to full-out belly-laugh. She has a stout dignity to her even as she's following a path that most of the film's target audience would see as ridiculous. She pulls off her part fabulously and deserves a great deal of attention for this performance.
"Natural Selection" is a complete shot in the dark. Eight of 10 films of this type are complete bombs, but the synergy, charm and the right mix of comedy and serious drama make this a stunner.