Thomas Dekker’s JACK GOES HOME is a look through the keyhole into the darker side of family life. What might seem idyllic and happy at one moment can turn sinister and dangerous in the blink of an eye, leaving one to wonder if the happy memories are even real memories at all.
Jack (Rory Culkin) has a successful career as a writer in LA and is eagerly awaiting the birth of his son with his fiancée Cleo (Britt Robertson). That is, until everything changes. One afternoon, Jack receives a telephone call, informing him that his parents were in a horrific car accident, and that his father has been killed. Jack prepares to head back home to Colorado to help his mother, Teresa (Lin Shaye), with the funeral arrangements, while attempting to handle his own grief.
Jack and his father have always been very close, and Jack is, understandably, having a difficult time dealing with the loss. He is unable to process the standard well-wishing of friends and neighbors, and his complicated relationship with his mother becomes outright toxic as soon as he sets foot in the door. The situation becomes even more complex when he stumbles upon a tape recorder hidden in the attic, along with a cassette tape addressed to him. It seems his father is trying to tell him something about his past – something buried deep and long forgotten. As the story progresses and the situation becomes stranger, Jack is left to solve the mystery of his past and of his family, while not really being able to put his trust in anything or anyone around him.
The film dances in the grey area between thriller and familial melodrama. Much of the story tension is rooted in the buried history of these people and their relationships to one another, as is much of the emotion. This family has been wounded, and they carry that baggage with them as it begins to fester and rot. So much of Jack’s past remains hidden from him, and his quest to learn the truth threatens to tear apart his world and family as he knows it.
The performances turned in by both Culkin and Shaye masterfully pull out this aspect and make full use of it throughout the course of the story. Jack and Teresa are dealing with their grief in decidedly different ways – ways that tend to clash. From the first moment Jack enters the house, the two are at odds, which only gets worse as time goes on. What began as a small friction quickly morphs into the pair walking over broken glass whenever they are in each other’s presence. They are both struggling with how to make sense of their worlds now, but can’t even make sense of each other.
JACK GOES HOME is a solid first effort from Thomas Dekker. The theatrical nature of the melodrama elements add an interesting depth to the story, and though they tend to break away every now and again, it never gets out of control. It would be easy for this one to drift, but the actors keep it grounded, and the mystery at the heart of the film pulls everything back together whenever it attempts to wander off.
Sometimes the most cherished memories can hide the darkest corners of your life. JACK GOES HOME offers up a mystery that shines a light into these corners, illuminating memories sometimes best left untouched.
