Steel City

A warm and fuzzy film

By PAUL BABIN | June 6, 2007

2.5 Stars

STEEL CITY: A prison-loving, family-values flick.

Brian Jun’s film owes more to the family values of the Reagan era than its anarchic characters and hardscrabble style would indicate. Although on the surface it seems hard-edged, at heart it’s warm and fuzzy. Tom Guiry evokes a fiery dyspepsia as P.J. Lee, whose world is torn apart when father Carl (John Heard) faces a seven-year prison sentence after killing a woman in a car crash. Everybody struggles with forgiveness in the most conventional of ways until the film ambles to the unrevelatory conclusion that Carl’s failures fragmented the family and that it’s up to dad to bring a new morning to America. But Heard is a profound sufferer — too bad Jun didn’t stay focused on Carl instead of milking all the other characters for pathos.

Topics: Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Family, John Heard, More

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ARTICLES BY PAUL BABIN

DUCK | August 22, 2007
Hall, who musters up so much emotion within a narrow role, deserves better, though the Aflac duck is all he’s quacked up to be.

FOUR WEEKS IN JUNE | June 13, 2007
Who would have thought that happiness was just a leap across the generation gap?

STEEL CITY | June 06, 2007
Brian Jun’s film owes more to the family values of the Reagan era than its anarchic characters and hardscrabble style would indicate.