''Lake City'' is a 2008 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Perry Moore William Perry Moore IV (November 4, 1971 – February 17, 2011),[http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/02/18/2011-02-18_narnia_producer_dead_in_soho_home.html Weichselbaum, Simone and Kemp, Joe. "'Narnia' Executive Producer Perry Moore Found De ...

and Hunter Hill and starring

Sissy Spacek Mary Elizabeth Spacek (; born December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four Britis ...

Troy Garity Troy Garity (born July 7, 1973) is an American film actor. He is primarily known for his role as Isaac in the ''Barbershop'' film series and as Barry Winchell in the television movie ''Soldier's Girl'' (2003), where he was nominated for a Golden ...

and Dave Matthews.

Plot

A mother reunites with her son after many years, who had left home as a result of a searing family tragedy.

Cast

as Maggie * Jason Davis as Shawn *

as Billy * Dave Matthews as Red (as David Matthews) *

Rebecca Romijn Rebecca Alie O'Connell (née Romijn ; born November 6, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She is known for her role as Mystique in the original trilogy (2000–2006) of the ''X-Men'' film series, as Joan from '' The Punisher'' ( ...

as Jenny * Keith Carradine as Royce *

Drea de Matteo Andrea Donna de Matteo is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Adriana La Cerva on the HBO television drama ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2006), for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress i ...

as Hope *

Jeff Wincott Jeffrey Wincott (born 8 May 1956) is a Canadian actor and martial artist best known for his lead role in the television series ''Night Heat.'' Wincott was also the star of several martial arts films in the 1990s. In 1996 he was named one of the ...

as Leo *

Colin Ford Colin Ford (born September 12, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Wheeler in '' Daybreak'', Joe McAlister in '' Under the Dome'', the voice of Jake on ''Jake and the Never Land Pirates'', Mikey on ''Can You Teach My Al ...

as Clayton

Production

''Lake City'' was shot in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

on a $4 million budget.

Release

''Lake City'' had its world premiere at the 2008

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on April 25, 2008, and was released in a single theater on November 21, 2008. Following the release,

Screen Media Films Screen Media Ventures, LLC. is an American-Canadian distribution company founded in 2001. In 2008, Screen Media selected The Creative Coalition as its exclusive nonprofit partner in launching the Spotlight Initiative. The partnership permits the p ...

acquired the rights to release the film on DVD.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 12% based on reviews from 26 critics, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Lake City fails to make use of its accomplished cast, with the story unraveling amid the competing visions of its dual directors". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 29 out of a 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Bill White of the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was fo ...

'' wrote: "When Hill and Moore leave story and characters behind to veer off into suspenseless chases through cornfields, one wonders if the era of earnest American drama may be coming to a close". Josh Rosenblatt of ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'' said "The only thing saving ''Lake City'' from total ridiculousness is issySpacek". Stephen Holden reviewing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' had criticized the lead actress, writing "When Sissy Spacek speaks her cliched lines in the mediocre screenplay of he film her delivery lends them a resonance that is not in the written words". According to

Mick LaSalle Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...

of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'' "With all the high-profile movies blasting into theaters at this time of year, ''Lake City'' will probably get lost in the shuffle. That won't be a tragedy". Robert Koehler of ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' wrote "The astonishingly inept finish could serve as a primer in screenwriting classes on how not to wind up a family drama".

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013. Career She has been featured on CNN, co-hosted '' Siskel & Ebert at the Mo ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' said that "The story is as impersonal as it is labored", while Michelle Orange of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' wrote "Add ngto the general torpidity and twangy tropes of this Southern family drama is the discomfort of watching a natural actor force it".

References

External links

* * *{{AllMovie title, 376082 2008 drama films 2008 films American drama films Films scored by Aaron Zigman Films shot in Virginia 2000s English-language films 2000s American films