This was a surprisingly good movie. I'm not going to try and write a "pro" review. I'm simply sharing my opinion, and I'm a person who has seen A LOT of movies, and has studied fine art...so:The cinematography is amazing. It's like the color version of The Night of the Hunter. I grew up in the Northeast on the water so it really hit home. It added a genuine romance to the homes and common sceneries you walk by everyday and never look at or imagine in the way it was presented in this film. It's almost like an old chair you have in your back yard that a photographer makes look like it belongs on the cover of a travel magazine. The story is pretty hard hitting and well told. That said, however, the characters take too long to blossom as well and suddenly it gets cut really short. In other words, just as I was starting to get into the story...it ended. So for me that was the downside. Otherwise this definitely gets a WATCH. It's quite good.

You know, it isn't easy to make a good movie. To begin with, I believe you need a good script. That is to say, in my mind at least, the story has to be complete. You can have great acting, great direction, great film making and yet, because of the script itself, it's literary values, the film isn't complete. The story isn't complete. That is the case with this movie. (Spoiler Alert) Two of three main characters are released, so to speak, from their torment. The third character, the one played by Messina: we don't really know what happens to him. He goes back into the oblivion. These are my film aesthetics: the viewers need to have the complete story. It's fine if a character doesn't come to terms with his life, but we want to know how. Messina's character has screwed up his life. He's run away from a tough situation with a woman he loved and he has refused to understand his parents. His girl has found another guy. His life has been emptied out. But the movie leaves him pretty much where it found him, except now he most likely knows he has screwed up. It's not enough. I obviously hate it when filmmakers leave things hanging. I really believe there's a laziness to it. If they can't complete the story they shouldn't make the film.

FAIRHAVEN is a quiet film that packs an emotional punch. Tom O'Brien does an amazing job writing and directing beautifully authentic scenes between people we all can relate to. Chris Messina can always be depended upon to deliver a scene-stealing performance (I loved him in Julie and Julia and Vicky Cristina Barcelona), however in this case his co-actors Sarah Paulson, Rich Sommer, Maryann Plunkett, and Phyllis Kay, are all so talented, they give him a run for his money. Lovely, wide shots of the melancholy Connecticut seacoast abound and the setting almost becomes a secondary character. This is a sleeper gem that's well worth watching. We have not seen the last of the talented (and handsome) O'Brien.

I have to admit that I'm not often pulled in to character-driven movies. I'm afraid I might be a victim of the fast-paced, constant-stimulation environment that technology has created for us. But this movie got to me. I'm from New England and the vibe and the characters were so accurate, and the story was so engrossing that I felt like I was a part of the movie. The other reviewer put it well when she wrote, "it wasn't like I was watching a movie, it was like I was watching life." I felt like I knew the characters, and I was left with the feeling of wanting another "episode." I actually think the movie would make a great premise for a dramatic television show, and I would definitely be a weekly viewer. I'm looking forward to nationwide release of the movie so that I can share it with my friends.