Kelly Furmon Craig pays homage - perhaps subconsciously - to the Savage Steve Holland and Steve Hughes dramadies of The Big 80's with this winning portrait of way over dramatic teenagerhood and the consequences it brings. Hailee Steinfeld nails how every glance, conversation, and text can seem life or death when you are on the edge of seventeen (thanks, Stevie Nicks!). She also nicely mixes in the subconscious search for a father figure after watching her own die of a heart attack. Her surrogate father lies in the person of the bitter, jaded English teacher Woody Harrelson who gets many of the film's best lines (these are not plentiful; having said that the writing is generally good). As an aside, kudos either to Craig, the makeup staff and/or to actor Eric Keenleyside who plays the father and even before his fatal heart attack appears like a man somehow looks like he's overdue for a terminal cardiac episode. Anyway, Steinfeld's Nadine so wraps herself in her own teenage narcissism that when we meet Harrelson's Mr. Bruner's family it feels like a revelation but is only because we have been seeing the world through Nadine's limited vision. So the movie excels in tone, realism and, to a degree comedy but nearly all limited to the Nadine / Bruner dyad. The script could have used some punching up when it comes to side characters including Haley Lu Richardson's Krista and Hayden Szeto's Erwin. Neither is given more to do than to be The Best Friend and The Silver Medal Love Interest respectively. Remember Anthony Michael Hall in "Sixteen Candles" doesn't get top billing but nonetheless, Hughes kept him integral to the plot. In short, while not quite the classics "Better Off Dead" or "Sixteen Candles", the movie contributes an entertaining and somewhat original interpretation on the subgenre.
Review of The Edge of Seventeen
