Review: 'Suncoast' features compelling performances from Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson

It’s difficult to take an instant dislike to a character as quickly as most will to Kristine in the coming-of-age film “Suncoast,” which will stream exclusively on Hulu Friday.

As she deals with the impending death of her teen son who is in a vegetative state due to terminal brain cancer, she ignores, or takes advantage of, her daughter Doris (Nico Parker) by heaping a serious amount of responsibility on her shoulders, in the process sacrificing what should be some of the best years of her life. It would be taking the easy way out to label Kristine (Laura Linney) the heavy.

And there’s some modicum of truth in that analysis. But easy isn’t always best, and although it takes time, the audience eventually comes to understand – however difficult it may be – her perspective.

More: 'Queen of America' Laura Linney takes on challenging mom role with Hulu movie 'Suncoast'

Of course, it’s easier to empathize with Doris, who has served as her brother’s caretaker when her mother wasn’t around, and her anger at the unfairness of missing out on friends and fun.

The charm in director Laura Chinn’s film, which she also wrote, is balancing those perspectives and coming to an inherent and logical conclusion (I’ll leave it for those who watch to come to their own). Based in part on Chinn's own story, “Suncoast” is set in a hospice facility during the time of Terri Schiavo, a woman in the late 1990s and 2000s who was in a persistent vegetative state that became central to a national quality-of-life debate. The movie seeks answers to complicated questions that have caused never-ending debates.

Doris is the typical teen in that she wants a life. She’s had to bear the brunt of caring for her older brother as he’s deteriorated due to his illness while her mother lays a tremendous amount of guilt at her feet for expressing her desires.

When the young man goes into hospice, Kristine sleeps on a cot by his bedside awaiting the inevitable. For Doris, it’s a blessing because she’s left to her own devices in their home alone.

It’s surprisingly easy to make friends when you have access to a house without a parent around, and Doris makes the most of that opportunity, grabbing a taste of life as a teenager, however briefly it lasts.

Chinn provides a sense of her anger early on and relief later at having that freedom.

She’s wise in one regard, however, ensuring that Kristine’s perspective is front and center, even when the character is not. While Doris is enjoying being unshackled, Paul (Woody Harrelson), a widower protesting against doctors’ removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube, stays in her ear, attempting to get her to understand the emotional stakes involved in the situation.

It makes for some emotionally powerful moments in a movie replete with them. Those scenes require a cast with the skills to provide their necessary impact.

There’s little doubt Linney and Harrelson, decorated performers whose careers span decades, possess the heft needed. The revelation in “Suncoast” is Parker, daughter of actress Thandie Newton and screenwriter father Ol Parker.

There’s no denying her resemblance to her Oscar-nominated mother, and judging from her performance here, she could have a career that equals and surpasses her with respect to longevity, if she wants. Doris is angry without being insufferable, vulnerable without being weak, and Parker makes it a memorable performance.

Chinn guides a deeply personal story with a steady hand. To its detriment, “Suncoast” lags at times, but that’s a small quibble in a film with such compelling performances.

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal.

Review

Movie: “Suncoast”

Cast: Laura Linney, Nico Parker, Woody Harrelson

Directed by: Laura Chinn

Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes

Rated: R for teen drug and alcohol use, language and some sexual references.

Grade: B

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Review: 'Suncoast' features different perspective in Terri Schiavo case