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MOVIE REVIEW '99 Homes' is gripping and emotionally absorbing By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Oct. 15, 2015 @ 12:01 am By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Oct. 15, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2324,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> 99 Homes ; 112 min; Rated R While the title “99 Homes” may sound benign, this film is anything but. It’s not a suburban travelogue; rather it’s a gripping and absorbing story, a morality play and a character study that quickly evolves into a suspenseful, psychological thriller with an unrelenting sense of danger while offering fine portrayals by Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon and Laura Dern. The location is Orlando, Florida, the year 2010, during the financial crisis and the savings and loan debacle. Houses belonging to hardworking families across the state (and the nation) are underwater, many facing imminent foreclosure. Dennis Nash (Garfield) is a hardworking construction worker, a single dad living with his young son, Connor (Noah Lomax), and his mother, Lynn Nash (Dern). He has borrowed against their home and missed three mortgage payments. After multiple notices and a court appearance, he is loathed to face the fact that the home is lost and the bank is going to take possession. And when two deputy sheriffs and a real estate agent, Rick Carver (Shannon), show up, Nash is informed that he is trespassing and the family has only minutes to get their personal property and vacate the home. Everything else will be put out on the lawn. What Nash doesn’t initially understand is that Carver is a predator who accrues increasing personal wealth with every repossession and has long ago abandoned any qualms about what he is doing, no matter that it is often fraud wrapped in a blatant patina of greed. Family homes, filled with hopes and dreams and desperate people are to him merely boxes — some large, some small — and his mantra is “Never get emotional about real estate.” While the framing of the plot may at first blush seem less than riveting, it is just the opposite. The writing is tight and edgy, and writer/director Ramin Bahrani creates a sense of underlying tension and danger wherein Nash ultimately makes a Faustian bargain with Carver and in effect steps into his shoes, though he is aware of the wrenching pain he causes when he confronts homeowners and informs them that they must leave. This is storytelling at its scalding best, and the metaphor of a home being underwater is perfect. It’s the inhabitants — to include Nash at the outset — who are struggling to breathe, gasping for air with no life ring available, many having nowhere to go but seedy motels inhabited by fragile souls forming a community of the dispossessed. If Nash has a weakness, it is his decency, his empathy for those he faces on the other side of the screen door. Carver, the antithesis of compassion, sucking on an e-cigarette, a cellphone to his ear, a Glock strapped to his ankle, only cares about the next “box” to flip. “99 Homes” is a visceral, taut, heartbreaking film, a drama that is emotionally absorbing with an underlying rage that is only barely contained. It is also an indictment of a period when those who benefitted from the scams and liar loans were, in the main, untouched by the tragedies they set in motion. Those impacted were instead families that believed what they were told, only to learn later that it was all a lie. By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Oct. 15, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Terms of Service /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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