Rare Objects

Over the course of the past five years or so, it has become more common to see compassionate films come out that boldly explore the traumas of sexual assault and harassment to help build awareness and find antidotes for how we can combat these social ills. Especially in recent films like The Tale, Promising Young Woman, and Women Talking, the female characters in those films endure life-changing experiences from their traumatic events. Well-acted and noble at the very least, this human drama from co-star and filmmaker Katie Homes third feature, titled Rare Objects, feels slight, as if many reels of the film didn’t make the final cut, with what remains being some really strong performances thanks to the writing, directing, and skills of its cast, which includes newcomer Julia Mayorga, Derek Luke, and a very sincere Alan Cummings. All told, it’s still a commendable film, even if it comes off uneven in many areas.

This isn’t to say the adapted script by co-writers Homes and Phaedon A. Papadopoulos from the novel of the same name by Kathleen Hughes doesn’t raise complex issues about women suffering from PTSD and the difficulties it brings in finding suitable relationships, or that Homes latest feature doesn’t have its fair share of resonant moments. It’s so much of it comes off slight and overstuffed, including certain friendships and relationships in the film, with one particular of its main characters named Benita (Mayorga), who is a very compelling character who has lived through a lot, but her character doesn’t feel as fleshed out as well as the supporting characters around here. She never quite gets her payoff, and because of this, the film feels like it never quite reaches being the engaging character study that it aims to be.

Courtesy IFC Films

The film begins with Benita in a psychiatric facility, where she is trying to sort through her PTSD from a traumatic event that recently occurred to her. She is dismissed from the facility, returns home, and we learn she recently dropped out of college due to how difficult it was for her to concentrate on her studies due to her anxieties. She is tormented by the event, and Homes taps into her psyche quite vividly. She never discusses the event, not even to her widowed mother (Saundra Santiago), as she tries to recover from the shell shock. Through flashbacks, the sexual assault and rape she endured are shown, but it feels fragmented in the way it shows the buildup and aftermath. It allows it to be horrific while never feeling underhanded.

To keep her mind and spirit going, along with having to pay off some student debt, Benita ends up landing a job interview at a luxurious antique store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The shop’s co-owner is Peter (Cumming), who brings a lot of charm and genuineness to the film. He has a strong gauge for Benita; he can sense she has charisma. He ends up offering her a job on the spot, and the film taps into more flashbacks of Benita meeting a fellow patient at the facility named Diana (Homes), with whom she ends up becoming friends. Coincidentally, Diana ends up being a customer at the antique shop, and both women have to disguise their sudden reunion in front of Peter and Diana’s brother James (David Alexander Finn) by claiming they met at a charity event.

Courtesy IFC Films

Throughout the course of the film, Homes does a serviceable job with the many dialogue exchanges between her characters. The friendship between Benita and Homes own Diana character is absorbing, but it lacks authenticity as Homes doesn’t attest the class divide between them as intricately as it could be. Benita, who is drowning in her college debut, must worry about her mother’s immigration status, as Diana comes from a very wealthy background with a wealthy mother and brother who give her money as she battles through her depression.

The development of a very dynamic story about how mental health is universal despite socioeconomic differences shows balance, but the theme hobbles around it as it focuses on other subplots involving a potential relationship that Benita is developing with James that never ignites and just ends up feeling contrived. Relationships like this, along with the introduction of another character, the shop’s other co-owner named Ben (Derek Luke), offer heart and additional running time. It’s certainly a nice reunion to see Luke in a film again with Katie Homes exactly 20 years after Pieces of April, and while they aren’t on screen together, his performance and exchanges with Cummings and Mayorga are resonant here. How Ben guides Benita to find a deeper perspective and the uncomfortable truths in the art displayed in the antique store become adequate therapeutic metaphors for Benita in how she is going to heal from her deep affliction.

There is a lot of compassion and heart in Katie Homes’s adaptation. The story juggles a lot with its lofty narrative and themes. Sadly, it feels about 15-20 minutes too long, with a beginning that takes too long to build up. While there are many delights to be found, including a tender scene of Alan Cumming’s Peter character poignantly opening up about his long dead lover at their favorite dining spot they used to go to together. But each time we get an engaging exchange with a supporting character, Benita’s growth never seems to fully materialize. Even if the point Homes is making is that we strengthen our traumas by learning from other people’s experiences, it feels half-realized. With that, Rare Objects ends up being tethered as a slight, warmed-over character study that never quite achieves the naturalism or social realism that it strives for.

RARE OBJECTS opens in limited theaters Friday, April 14th.