The Favor

"The Favor" is exactly the kind of film most aversely affected by the current glut of releases. In a different distribution climate, it could be nurtured to find an audience; instead, it seems doomed to be unfairly lost in the shuffle. A bracing, nuanced work that flirts with melodrama without ever teetering into sappy conventions, the film is the fiction feature debut of writer-director Eva Aridjis. A man in suburban New Jersey (Frank Wood, a Tony winner perhaps more immediately familiar to fans of TV's "The Flight of the Conchords") seems to have accepted his lonely lot in life when he unexpectedly finds himself acting as foster father to the teenage son (Ryan Donowho) of a former girlfriend (Paige Turco). Subtly acted, with Aridjis showing remarkable trust in her performers, "The Favor" is that rare film that at every turn exhibits good taste and a sense of restraint.
Da The Los Angeles Times, 1 maggio 2008