Least Among Saints

It all ends on a grace note that feels false but caps an otherwise solid if predictable drama.

This quietly affecting indie film, about a Middle East war vet and the 10-year-old boy he takes under his wing, gently pulls the heartstrings while making dramatic missteps along the way.

The results are too predictable.

Though both actors deliver performances more credible than the plot that frames them, their authenticity only highlights the script's affection for improbable coincidences and an ending even Garry Marshall might consider too pat.

As a portrait of a self-pitying drunk's wet dream of inexplicable atonement, it's fairly effective, but as a story meant to take place on some rational version of planet Earth, it's utterly hopeless.

A film in which any authority figure who can't magically sober up and play surrogate daddy for a spell is treated as either a meddler or a well-meaning, do-nothing skeptic.

The top notch production qualities, great direction, and fantastic ensemble performances make this film a definite recommendation.

Excels in performances resonating with raw intensity and dramatic authenticity. But while earnestly inspired by the tragic circumstances facing US soldiers in war for real, the material forming the basis here is without historical context, and it shows.

Earnestness combines with pedestrian technique in Martin Papazian's well-meaning but clumsy film.

Papazian overloads the film with contrived melodrama and forced sentimentality.