A Place to Hide

A young man is staying at a motel, where he takes care of his vulnerable mother.

Charlie (Knight) is a youth who is in a rather unfortunate situation. Due to a series of events, he has ended up living in a motel, renting a room where his mother (King) is also residing, who has a condition that causes her to be unresponsive. Charlie has just lost his job and he is running out of money. To make ends meet, he is forced to sleep with a man for a fee. Charlie tries hard to stay strong and make things better for his mother and for himself.

This short drama is quite a hard-hitting story that revolves around an individual who is in a desperate position and is clearly too young to handle everything that he is dealing with. Charlie is unemployed, he is about to become homeless and he is estranged from his father, who seems unlikely to offer any assistance. On top of all this, he has his mother to take care of. Although things improve, this is still a sad film that addresses the consequences of living in a broken family and the failures of the healthcare system.

Wrightstone directs very well, creates several well executed long takes and the camera is often static. He directs in a way that makes the audience feel the isolation that Charlie is going through, by showing him in environments where he is by himself, alone and cut off from the rest of the world. Wrightstone also worked on the cinematography and does a great job there as well and there are also interesting lighting techniques.

This is a downbeat story about desperation that centres on a young person who is forced to fend for himself and deal with all sorts of problems in order to move forward. It has strong acting and explores a variety of themes that include becoming an adult, dealing with the hardships of life, supporting others and finding the inner strength to keep going.