I’ve always been a fan of movies that examine how deaths can affect the ones we love and how it can create a pretty significant ripple. “Suck It Up” is a bit of “Garden State,” and “Ordinary People” mixed with mumblecore here and there. While I appreciate director Jordan Canning’s efforts to create this drama about how the death of one of the more important people in their lives affected them drastically, the script from Julia Hoff seems to be almost bereft of drama to the point where scenes just stretch out in to nothingness. There are a lot of really drawn out moments where almost nothing happens. In brief scenes where Canning tackles the dynamic between our characters Ronnie and Faye, “Suck It Up” presents only slight glimmers of an emotional character study.
Erin Carter plays Faye a young girl who is still reeling from the death of her long term boyfriend Garrett from testicular cancer. When she learns that his sister Ronnie has turned to alcohol and was injured while mowing the lawn, she returns to town to help her get her life back in order. Along the way, Faye is pulled in to a lot of Ronnie’s self destructive behavior and “Suck It Up” has a kind of hard time balancing out its tone and intentions. Sometimes the movie rambles on, sometimes it seems to be building to something, and other times it oddly tries to integrate comedy in to the narrative.
One scene finds Faye accidentally drinking tainted lemonade before a skype job interview, and has a tough time maintaining her composure. There’s also the climactic confrontation that also has a tough time deciding if we should be gripped with the stunning revelations, or chuckling from the way these characters deal with their biggest problems involving Garrett. I was also fairly certain “Suck It Up” would progress in to a road trip film, but that narrative also takes kind of a detour in to more sequence of characters drinking and groaning about how tough their lives have been since the aforementioned death.
“Suck It Up” is not a bad film, but more a weak indie arthouse drama with no firm grasp on what it’s trying to convey or how it wants us to feel about death as a whole. When we learn about how character Ronnie suffered through her brother’s slow descent in to cancer, it’s kind of difficult to laugh at certain moments where she flashes a group of guys for a beer. Director Jordan Channing is a solid director and writer Julia Hoff is also quite talented, but “Suck It Up” is just a sub-par character study/family drama with serviceable performances from the cast. I’d be hard pressed to recommend this to anyone.