Going All The Way
In the best film of the year featuring a non-sexual romance between two heterosexual men, Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies play two Army vets who, following the Korean War, return home to their shared Indianapolis suburb and start looking for ways out. The first film from frequent video director Mark Pellington (from a novel by Dan Wakefield), Going All The Way is a meandering, uneven, guy-centric film, but it's extremely winning, due largely to its stars' strong performances and Pellington's competently relaxed handling of the material. His mind expanded by shore leave in Japan, Affleck, in another notable performance, deftly plays an ex-jock who finds himself thinking about things for the first time. But it's Davies who serves as the movie's heart, delivering an excellent performance as the twitchy, troubled, hopeful child of an oppressive, conservative family. Going All The Way is a terrific film that could easily get overlooked in the glut of fall releases, but shouldn't.