David Conrad is a college professor and sometimes philanderer raising three children in a small Kansas suburb with his wife Kelly. When sudden tragedy strikes the family in the days before Christmas, David and Kelly's marriage is brought to its breaking point and David's desire for retribution leads him into uncharted moral territory with the question: what can we forgive?
You May Also Like
Reviews
I wanted to but couldn't!
Good concept, poorly executed.
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
The Sublime & Beautiful, I haven't seen a film this raw & performances this real in a film since Laws of Gravity, from the moment I watched this Man's World, from the first unhinged twinge of the camera, I knew the World we were entering was already on shaky ground, the family unit was so beautiful & full of life, but there's a sudden reason for the camera work that creeps in, you'll have to catch your breath, again & again as it unfolds that this man's lively World & gorgeous children might be temporary. Most Filmmakers, as well as Lead Actors, could have easily directed this into the arena of melodrama, but once again, the potency of the Reality I was seeing before me made me loudly weep & then hold the emotions in, as the characters viscerally do the same. Get a drink of water before this one & go into this journey full force because this man's reality will unfold before you in such a subtle yet spellbinding & mesmerizing way, you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. This movie took me to all kinds of places within myself, my own moral conundrums & just spit me out onto the floor, from moments in which the Man's Wife declares "Here goes the Woman with the Dead Kids" to the moment he confronts the drunk driver in a wonderfully, raw scene, only to assume what transpired there, till the very end, in which David Conrad, played brilliantly by Blake Robbins, seems to have his own epiphany in the house of the relatives of the Drunk Driver. I was on pins & needles. This didn't feel like acting to me. This felt very real which means the filmmakers did it right. If you've ever experienced loss, any kind or have never experienced profound loss & want to know how a human being truly feels in these situations, the journey it takes man/woman on, this film should be shown in film schools/universities, it's that potent, it set a bar for the reality of Human Grieving, Forgiveness & it's both Sublime & Beautiful.
Blake Robbins took on a daunting task: Writing a story about a profoundly sad event in the life of a family. The hazard in such an effort is to fall into tactics of cheap and obvious manipulation. Not only did Robbins tell the story with realism and respect, he carried it through 90 minutes of film further enriched by the right actors, cinematography, musical score and all the other elements of a nearly perfect movie. I did not cry when I watched it, but not because I wasn't moved. Blake put me in David's head and I felt locked in a state of shock and denial. Add David's struggle with middle-aging even before the tragedy, witness the impact on David and Kelly's marriage, the reactions of friends, family and community, and this film feels as real as it possibly could. As art, it is the best possible treatment of one of the darkest aspects of the human condition.
Rarely, am I so moved by watching a film that I feel compelled to write a review. The Sublime and Beautiful is just that kind of a rare gem of a movie. Blake Robbins, has created an exquisitely moving and excellently written and directed film. Grief and loss are themes in many, many films and so very few of them honestly and believably explore those subjects. And, even less often, have deftly drawn you into their characters with any real sense of depth and dimension. The Sublime and Beautiful indelibly does. The dialogue rings true in scene after scene, and even in the moments where the characters say nothing, there is still an emotional engagement and deep involvement felt with them. I commend Mr. Robbins for having the courage and vision to make a film, which includes many scenes of silent moments. For me, they spoke volumes more than words could have ever expressed, instead. Most of us have suffered profound losses in our lives, and you will find yourself relating with these masterfully portrayed characters --long after the film ends. I highly recommend The Sublime and Beautiful as a "must see" film of the New Year!
I once took a writing class where the teacher told us that the best way to get readers to care about your characters is to make terrible things happen to those characters, forcing some type of reaction. The Sublime and Beautiful is the greatest example of this that I've ever seen. Throwing on a multitude of hats as director, producer, writer and lead actor, filmmaker Blake Robbins offers up a tale of a husband and wife who lose their three children in a tragic accident. Robbins reveals flaws in many of the characters throughout the film, but none so much as the main charactercreating a stunningly authentic feel with each role. Though The Sublime and Beautiful is by far the heaviest film I've seen in a long time in terms of mood, its depiction of grief is stunningly honest and matter-of-fact. When you experience tragedy in life you don't want to talk to people you hardly know, you don't want people constantly asking how you are and you certainly don't want to hear about how "these things happen for a reason"you want someone to blame. Robbins understands that perfectly, and his film is both sublime and beautiful.