Ceremony | Eastern North Carolina Now

    
It Sometimes Takes a Tough Weekend to Turn One's Life Around

    One weekend at the shore, ironically, was the catalyst for young Sam Davis. It was supposed to be the weekend when a young man might pivot to a life more representative of one that is a good mix of happiness and success. Instead it was the weekend when he found out a good bit about himself. Maybe more than he wanted or needed to know.

    Young Sam Davis, played by the precocious Michael Angarano, was a 24 year old writer of mildly successful children's books - pretty much a short hit or a long miss in the category of success. He wasn't a failure in his avocation, just young and seeking his personal path against the normal odds inherent within any capitalist society. Sam knows the game, and he just wants to do his best, irrespective of his lowly financial standing, and sadly, the young man has some very high hopes - well beyond his station.

    One immediately senses Sam's desperation to pivot toward a more purposeful status, especially with the woman he is infatuated with, but he will need some help. Since his prospects are limited, he is forced to enlist the help of his estranged friend, Marshall Schmidt, played by Reece Thompson. Marshall is emotionally weak and in therapy. Sam Davis is a young man full of promise, who is "cock-sure" regarding his prospects for the bright future that he so clearly sees. They are such an odd couple, one immediately understands why Sam had not contacted Marshall for over a year before this fateful weekend at the shore. The young man is desperate.

    His tenuous existence has a dual purpose: To follow his literary dream, even if it demands a bohemian existence in the City of New York, and win the love of the woman he is infatuated with, even if she may have been just a one weekend fling in the city.

    Eventually, we recognize that young Sam Davis may be up against a wall too tall. Firstly, his autumn weekend to the shore is dedicated to the premise that the woman, Zoe, played by Uma Thurman, who well occupies his dreams must not marry that weekend: Not to British Documentary Filmmaker Whit Coutell, played by Lee Pace (American actor with a very good accent). Secondly, Sam's friend Marshall begins to realize why his long estranged friend wanted his companionship this ill-fated weekend.

    Writer and Director Max Winkler constructed the character of his protagonist, Sam Davis, against a wall of adversity, with the energy and raw intelligence, even the personality, of an older Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller‘s Day Off), but without any of the positive karma of Mathew Broderick’s Ferris. The unrelenting Sam Davis really gave the Ferris Beuller effort this weekend, but only received the Cameron (Ferris’s minor foil) results. It was kind of sad, and yet, darkly funny.

     Obviously, it does make a great story when the jilted young man, who is desperately in love, pulls out all the stops to dramatically halt the wedding of the woman he is infatuated with, and saves her from a misspent life with the wrong man. Good story, like when Ben Braddock stole Elaine Robinson, in The Graduate, from “The Make-out-king,” and they road off into the sunset in the back of a public bus. The truth of the matter is that this would rarely be the case in this real, complicated world, where predictable romance is yet a mere component of sustainable love.



    So it was for Zoe and her soon-to-be-betrothed Whit Coutell at his stately beach home along the Atlantic Ocean somewhere on Long Island, New York. Whit was conceited, handsome, boorish, tall, rich, yet devoted to Zoe. Sam Davis was near-destitute, funny, short, sincere but cunning, cute but not handsome, immature and committed to his cause. How do you think it turned out in this realistic depiction of life and love?

    Was Ceremony a great film? No. Was it a good film? Yes, and definitely worth the 89 minutes you’ll spend to get this “slice of life” depiction of an impossible romance.

    Rated R. Released in theaters May 1, 2011.


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