Come Down Molly Review – A Beautiful Day with Friends

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Monday, 11 May 2015 07:38

Written by Janet Walker

Come Down Molly, from Florida Pictures, brings to the screen a coming of age film for a group of twenty something friends enjoying the last days of youthful, commitment free, indulgences as slowly, one by one, they are challenged by life's expectations.

Written and directed by Gregory Kohn, Come Down Molly stars Eleonore Hendricks as Molly with Jason Shelton as Shelton, John Anderson as John, Jason Selvig as Jason, Sam Sundos as Sam, Benjamin Roberts as Ben and David Jette as David.  

As the film opens we met Molly taking care of her toddler, an adorable little guy, who steals the scenes as she has been left alone while her husband Patrick, played by Kentucker Audley, works on the road. She is virtually isolated with a nine month old, whom she loves, and still the routine is monotonous, without end and lonely. Postpartum blues have Molly at odds with her sister Amy, played by Lindsay Burdge, as the joys of motherhood haven't arrived just yet.

Out of the blue Molly receives a call from her old gang of high school buddies, all guys, who are spending the weekend chilling at a friend's parent's summer house. And for the first time, in a long time she decides she is going, alone. No husband, no baby, no commitments.

Soon Molly is greeting the guys she hung out with throughout high school. This is where the film explodes into a beautiful cinematically stunning warm afternoon that translates, beckoning, inviting.

The half dozen guys are all the same age, slower than Molly to settle into life's expectations, no commitments and interestingly no real direction. On this day, they made the plans for tubing on the Colorado River and getting high on mushrooms which was as much direction as they wanted.

After eating the 'shrums, the tubing, as the river was shallow in some places and rapid in others, was a bust, not bad but not the thrill our thrill seekers were hoping to experience as they become one with nature.

So ditching the tubes and begin to make their way back to the ranch, passing through various unknown, but highly significant discoveries, soon they are standing in the field of dreams, adjacent to the house, as the mushrooms begin to take effect.

The stunning home sits on acres of amazingly gorgeous land in Colorado, the lighting was perfect over fields of wheat, with golden hues, and our group stoned on a sunny afternoon, with no obligations, life was good. The groups seemed to be truly enjoying themselves.

The "high" scenes were also done quite well; with enough retrospect to be believable; the cycle of love, retrospect, enlightenment, food and sleep all played subtly and the points hit with authenticity.

Each of our group has a nice high moment with each of the elements of the hallucinogen, explained by Jason who describes an almost spiritual enlightenment, experienced by one or more.

Molly's trip included hallucinations of her dead father, with Terrence Montgomery playing her dad. She describes how when he died, during her senior year, basically she was an emotional wreck which she dealt with through sexual aggression. 

These scenes are a tearjerker as it was obvious he held the family together and she genuinely missed, loved and was honestly happy to have this moment even if was an hallucination. . 

The high created scenarios in her mind, scenes that played out to a conclusion, and then she would snap back to reality and the trailer of her edited fantasy would end.

The suspended reality allows the audience the freedom, as the film presents, to wander absorbed in the beauty of nature. Come Down Molly handles the subtle issues of postpartum depression well without creating gratuitous drama.

The inability to connect emotionally seem to plague her in other areas as the elements of sadness especially at the scene with her father. And who among us wouldn't, after the finality of death, want one last moment if given the chance.

The mushroom aided trailers, created by both the sub-conscience and the loss of inhibitions or her own hopeful conscience thoughts, draw a correlation between the untimely death and the inability to connect with her son.

Each of the characters have a singular arch played out as they catch up relaying the important decisions one to another while they experience the high. Marriage has crept into the group, and no longer only for themselves, the desire to freeze this one afternoon, this best day ever, before the realities and priorities of life shift.

It is a coming of age film fueled by nature, psychotropic drugs, the reunion and strawberries. As Molly is already married with a baby, the guys are faced with the reality of 'what am I going to be when I grow up' thoughts nagging at the conscience.

The Director of Photography, Chris Mosson, deserves a mention. The work was stunning. The cinematography was memorable, so beautiful it made me want to pack up and head to Colorado.

In order to film the spontaneity of the field scenes, the director explained they used multiple cameras to capture the footage, and in addition to the steady cam they were rigged with camel backs to prevent dehydration.

Come Down Molly made its North American Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Additional release dates have yet to be announced.

Come Down Molly is an enjoyable sensory trip. See it if possible.