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Movies / On DVD / Nearing Grace
Nearing Grace

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Nearing Grace (2006)

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Reviews Counted:22

Fresh:10

Rotten:12

Average Rating:5.3/10

Consensus: This coming-of-age story doesn't dig deep enough to offer anything fresh to the genre.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for drug use, language and sexual content.

Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Oct 13, 2006 Limited

Synopsis: A coming-of-age independent feature film set in late 1970s, NEARING GRACE follows high school senior Henry Nearing (Gregory Smith). Nearing has to cope with the death of his mother, and is also... A coming-of-age independent feature film set in late 1970s, NEARING GRACE follows high school senior Henry Nearing (Gregory Smith). Nearing has to cope with the death of his mother, and is also forced to come to terms with evolving from a self-absorbed and confused adolescent to accepting the responsibilities of early adulthood. Unfortunately his father, Shep (David Morse), and his older brother, Blair (David Moscow), don't offer any kind of guidance, and find themselves detaching at the seams. His father quits his teaching job, buys a motorcycle, and becomes a perpetual drunk, while his brother takes off to live as a transient doper. To make things even more complicated, Henry has two young women on his mind: the sexy, wealthy, and very popular Grace (Jordana Brewster) and childhood friend Merna (Ashley Johnson)--one drives him crazy, the other keeps him sane. Based on the novel of the same name by Scott Somer, NEARING GRACE at times seems to vicariously live through some of the more memorable moments of its coming-of-age predecessors, SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL (1987) and GARDEN STATE (2004). Once the haze of constant pot-smoking clears the characters are relatable and in some instances the scenes are quite heartfelt, although the film isn't much of a stretch for Smith, who is well-known as teen-angst extraordinaire Ephram Brown in the television drama EVERWOOD. But it's Smith's co-stars, Brewster (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS), Johnson (FAST FOOD NATION), and Morse (DOWN IN THE VALLEY, PROOF OF LIFE) that deliver the emotional leverage needed to expose Henry's pain. [More]

Starring: Gregory Smith, Jordana Brewster, David Morse, Ashley Johnson

Starring: Gregory Smith, Jordana Brewster, David Morse, Ashley Johnson, David Moscow, Chad Faust, Logan Bartholomew, Brian Doyle-Murray

Director: Rick Rosenthal

Director: Rick Rosenthal
Producer: Tracy Underwood
Composer: John E. Nordstrom
Producer: Susan Johnson
Studio: Whitewater Films

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Oct 23, 2007

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Reviews for Nearing Grace

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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It feels like perhaps the screenplay was intensely personal and/or autobiographical, yet it's suspiciously lacking in any dramatic tension.

Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | comment Comment
11/10/07
Mike McGranaghan
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

It’s so exceptionally well done, so exceedingly well-cast that it makes one realize how few such films actually succeed at all.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
10/15/06
Wade Major
Wade Major
Boxoffice Magazine

A fine coming-of-age drama about a sexually eager young man who discovers that anything is possible with a friend who is loving and trustworthy after years of giving and forgiving.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
10/13/06
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

The story is small, but their performances give it depth and weight.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
10/13/06
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Moral dilemmas faced by immature teens is fine fare for young-adult fiction, but a movie that wants them to be taken as something bigger needs better management than Nearing Grace can provide.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
10/13/06
Ted Fry
Ted Fry
Seattle Times

It's also refreshingly low-key and more intelligent than 90% of the movies aimed at the teen crowd. That by itself is a fine achievement.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
10/13/06
Pam Grady
Pam Grady
Reel.com

[It] makes you feel like a heel for not liking it: Independently made and heartfelt, it also happens to have been shot in Portland. Nonetheless, the accumulation of cliches big and small manage to erase whatever goodwill its other features have engendered

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
10/13/06
Marc Mohan
Marc Mohan
Oregonian

The story here is as dog-eared as an old beach book, and about as deep.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
10/13/06
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The performances by Smith, Brewster and veteran David Morse, as a morbidly depressed widower, elevate Nearing Grace to something near grace.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
10/13/06
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The tone is psychological realism, as opposed to, say, American Pie-style burlesque. But the main emphasis is on sex and drugs anyway. In any case, it's not very illuminating.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
10/13/06
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

...cinematic youth has rarely seemed so convincingly uncertain, and Brewster could definitely drive a young guy crazy.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
10/13/06
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Smart, funny and, thanks in no small part to David Geddes' cinematography, it occasionally approaches the poetic.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
10/12/06
Michael Ordoña
Michael Ordoña
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Bursting with hormones, angst, humor and heartbreak, Rick Rosenthal's Nearing Grace, set during the late 1970's in suburban New Jersey, follows a teenager's efforts to survive both the recent loss of his mother and his senior year of high school.

comment Comment
10/12/06
Laura Kern
Laura Kern
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Nearing Grace means to be a gritty look at what it was like to come of age in the late '70s, but its reality is hampered by the unreal pretentiousness of every word the characters utter.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
10/12/06
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

The dialogue is full of fortune cookie aphorisms and stilted literary phrases that were never meant to be spoken aloud.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
10/12/06
Bill White
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The characters are stereotypes, their situations are familiar and the outcome is predictable. But the whole thing is viewed from such a feel-good perspective that we're willing to overlook much of that.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
10/12/06
Jeff Strickler
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An unsympathetic lead, a story that's been told a million times (the Scarlett-Ashley/star-crossed lovers story), relationships that don't make sense and an unfamiliarity with basic physics.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
10/12/06
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If we've seen it all before, Nearing Grace's mix of nostalgia and contempt for the follies of youth is a potent one.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
10/12/06
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

Some Kind of Wonderful? No, some kind of earnest, stranded adaptation of Nearing Grace, Scott Sommer's late-1970s coming-of-age novel.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
10/11/06
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sucks to be Nearing Grace on the same week that Zerophilia also opens.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
09/22/06
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
 
 
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