I'm going to check the box indicating that this review contains spoilers, just to be safe, though I am not by any means spilling all the beans here.
This movie surprised me. I decided to give it a look based on the one-sentence description it has, "Mysterious teenager arrives in small town, attracts sheriff's interest, violence surrounds him." That is about as compact of a description as you could give it - and it doesn't begin to touch on the real story.
Rufus, a teenager, had been traveling with an old lady who died in an accident just outside a remote small town. It's not mentioned much but the town is Conrad and I believe it's in Iowa. (More on that shortly.) He won't answer questions about himself at the scene of the accident, and with him having no place to go, the sheriff takes him home to give him a place to stay. Originally he was going to stay for one night but that turns into an ongoing situation. This really upsets the sheriff's wife because they had had a son about the same age who died; having Rufus around, staying in their son's room, wearing his clothes and such seems to her as a violation of her own late son's memory, space and things. (Rufus is wearing the son's jacket which has a patch from the Conrad Coyotes, 74-75.) Before long though, Rufus's quiet and unassuming personality first draws her curiosity, then her tolerance and finally her affection. Also, the high school girl Tracy who lives across the street from the sheriff's house falls for him, again because his quiet and reserved personality makes him so different from the other boys she's known. The girl's current boyfriend Clay at first attacks Rufus but as with the others, eventually becomes his friend. Unfortunately, a young local boy and a visiting stranger sees them together and accuse Clay of being attracted to Rufus. Clay unhappily admits to Rufus that the kid is right. Apparently unable to handle his own feelings, the next day he tries to kill Rufus. I was afraid at that point that this would turn into some sort of gay love story (nothing wrong with gays, I just didn't expect or want that) but it was just another of the subplots surrounding Rufus. It was IN the story but it was certainly not THE story.
Rufus is emotionally very subdued. His basic attitude is to be cautious and quiet, likely because despite his age (more on that later) he has lived his life in a sort of institution and has no experience in the real world. Hence he's illiterate... he's just never been taught to read or write. Other than the instances where he gets angry and becomes his violent character, I only noted two times when there was real emotion, and one of them was almost impossible to catch. In one scene, he's on top of a building in the downtown of the little town where he lives, and he's taking chunks of snow and tossing them down on top of a man by the street. The man hollers for him to stop and he keeps it up, and at that moment we see the only great big smile he ever shows in the movie. The other instance is when he's in the room where the old lady's body is, the one who was accompanying him on the trip til she was killed from being hit by a truck. Rufus is there with Tracy, the girl from across the street, and she asks him if he cried for her. He asks, 'Should I have?' and she says that it depends what she meant to him. He pulls the sheet up over the old lady's face, then just as the scene fades we hear the sharp double inhale of someone who is on the verge of crying. Maybe he cried, we don't get to see it.
Other minor subplots happen through the movie, but a larger one comes along in the person of another stranger who arrives in town. He knows all about Rufus, and plans to take him away, back to where he came from... but the people surrounding Rufus, while they still don't know his whole story, have grown attached to him and they don't want the stranger to take him. Rufus knows the stranger, and he also doesn't want to go with him. The sheriff's wife tells the stranger 'You're not taking MY boy!' and that sets off the last big turning point. The stranger is dealt with, and the sheriff and his wife now know a lot more about Rufus - and it doesn't matter to either of them. Rufus has shown he's as fond of them as they've become of him. The sheriff disposes of any indication the stranger has ever been in town. The presence of that stranger does prompt a couple of instances when the normally stoic Rufus cries - once, when the stranger is convincing him to come along with him - and he doesn't want to go - and after he's attacked the stranger for hurting his new 'mom'.
I will make one more comment which could be considered a spoiler. Some other reviewers and even the story itself make a case that Rufus is a sort of vampire, but in actuality, he's much more like a werewolf. He does have aspects of both, which makes him a somewhat unique character in the movies. And he's ageless - even the stranger who had come for him has no idea how old Rufus really is, but he presents as a teenage boy and will remain that way forever despite the fact that he's known to actually be over 100 years old. His behavior and attitudes, as his physical appearance, will remain as those of a teenager. Think of Samantha Stephens on "Bewitched", she's a witch and has been around for untold years yet she still remains a young woman in appearance and attitude. Rufus has a very interesting combination of characteristics.
This movie was released in 2012; Rory Saper, who plays the role of Rufus, was born in 1996. He was no more than 16 years old during filming and may have been 15 for at least part of it. He did an excellent and sensitive portrayal of Rufus. It is a pet peeve of mine that movies almost always find someone a different age to play a role. Normally I'd have expected a 16 year old Rufus to be played by someone 20 to 24 years old but here we have an actual teenager playing the role of a teenager, and to me it adds a lot of credibility to the character. And Saper, who was born in England, has a definite English accent to his speech, but they make it work fine in the movie. In different scenes his complexion goes from rather clear to much more noticeable acne, and I guess that comes with the territory of having a teenage actor.
I'm sure I will watch this movie again.
This movie surprised me. I decided to give it a look based on the one-sentence description it has, "Mysterious teenager arrives in small town, attracts sheriff's interest, violence surrounds him." That is about as compact of a description as you could give it - and it doesn't begin to touch on the real story.
Rufus, a teenager, had been traveling with an old lady who died in an accident just outside a remote small town. It's not mentioned much but the town is Conrad and I believe it's in Iowa. (More on that shortly.) He won't answer questions about himself at the scene of the accident, and with him having no place to go, the sheriff takes him home to give him a place to stay. Originally he was going to stay for one night but that turns into an ongoing situation. This really upsets the sheriff's wife because they had had a son about the same age who died; having Rufus around, staying in their son's room, wearing his clothes and such seems to her as a violation of her own late son's memory, space and things. (Rufus is wearing the son's jacket which has a patch from the Conrad Coyotes, 74-75.) Before long though, Rufus's quiet and unassuming personality first draws her curiosity, then her tolerance and finally her affection. Also, the high school girl Tracy who lives across the street from the sheriff's house falls for him, again because his quiet and reserved personality makes him so different from the other boys she's known. The girl's current boyfriend Clay at first attacks Rufus but as with the others, eventually becomes his friend. Unfortunately, a young local boy and a visiting stranger sees them together and accuse Clay of being attracted to Rufus. Clay unhappily admits to Rufus that the kid is right. Apparently unable to handle his own feelings, the next day he tries to kill Rufus. I was afraid at that point that this would turn into some sort of gay love story (nothing wrong with gays, I just didn't expect or want that) but it was just another of the subplots surrounding Rufus. It was IN the story but it was certainly not THE story.
Rufus is emotionally very subdued. His basic attitude is to be cautious and quiet, likely because despite his age (more on that later) he has lived his life in a sort of institution and has no experience in the real world. Hence he's illiterate... he's just never been taught to read or write. Other than the instances where he gets angry and becomes his violent character, I only noted two times when there was real emotion, and one of them was almost impossible to catch. In one scene, he's on top of a building in the downtown of the little town where he lives, and he's taking chunks of snow and tossing them down on top of a man by the street. The man hollers for him to stop and he keeps it up, and at that moment we see the only great big smile he ever shows in the movie. The other instance is when he's in the room where the old lady's body is, the one who was accompanying him on the trip til she was killed from being hit by a truck. Rufus is there with Tracy, the girl from across the street, and she asks him if he cried for her. He asks, 'Should I have?' and she says that it depends what she meant to him. He pulls the sheet up over the old lady's face, then just as the scene fades we hear the sharp double inhale of someone who is on the verge of crying. Maybe he cried, we don't get to see it.
Other minor subplots happen through the movie, but a larger one comes along in the person of another stranger who arrives in town. He knows all about Rufus, and plans to take him away, back to where he came from... but the people surrounding Rufus, while they still don't know his whole story, have grown attached to him and they don't want the stranger to take him. Rufus knows the stranger, and he also doesn't want to go with him. The sheriff's wife tells the stranger 'You're not taking MY boy!' and that sets off the last big turning point. The stranger is dealt with, and the sheriff and his wife now know a lot more about Rufus - and it doesn't matter to either of them. Rufus has shown he's as fond of them as they've become of him. The sheriff disposes of any indication the stranger has ever been in town. The presence of that stranger does prompt a couple of instances when the normally stoic Rufus cries - once, when the stranger is convincing him to come along with him - and he doesn't want to go - and after he's attacked the stranger for hurting his new 'mom'.
I will make one more comment which could be considered a spoiler. Some other reviewers and even the story itself make a case that Rufus is a sort of vampire, but in actuality, he's much more like a werewolf. He does have aspects of both, which makes him a somewhat unique character in the movies. And he's ageless - even the stranger who had come for him has no idea how old Rufus really is, but he presents as a teenage boy and will remain that way forever despite the fact that he's known to actually be over 100 years old. His behavior and attitudes, as his physical appearance, will remain as those of a teenager. Think of Samantha Stephens on "Bewitched", she's a witch and has been around for untold years yet she still remains a young woman in appearance and attitude. Rufus has a very interesting combination of characteristics.
This movie was released in 2012; Rory Saper, who plays the role of Rufus, was born in 1996. He was no more than 16 years old during filming and may have been 15 for at least part of it. He did an excellent and sensitive portrayal of Rufus. It is a pet peeve of mine that movies almost always find someone a different age to play a role. Normally I'd have expected a 16 year old Rufus to be played by someone 20 to 24 years old but here we have an actual teenager playing the role of a teenager, and to me it adds a lot of credibility to the character. And Saper, who was born in England, has a definite English accent to his speech, but they make it work fine in the movie. In different scenes his complexion goes from rather clear to much more noticeable acne, and I guess that comes with the territory of having a teenage actor.
I'm sure I will watch this movie again.