Nearing Grace (2005)
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45% of critics liked it
(22 reviews) -
36% of users liked it
(16,049 ratings)
A teenage boy tries to hold his family together while the girl of his dreams drives him to distraction in this coming-of-age comedy drama. It's 1978, and Henry Nearing (Gregory Smith) and his family are in a state of flux. Henry's mother has died, and now his father, Shep (David Morse), is… More A teenage boy tries to hold his family together while the girl of his dreams drives him to distraction in this coming-of-age comedy drama. It's 1978, and Henry Nearing (Gregory Smith) and his family are in a state of flux. Henry's mother has died, and now his father, Shep (David Morse), is trying to find himself by quitting his job, buying a motorcycle, and growing out his hair. Henry's brother, Blair (David Moscow), is similarly trying to expand his boundaries by dating a free-spirited girl and experimenting with drugs. Henry, meanwhile, is just trying to get through high school, but a certain girl is making that difficult for him. Grace Chance (Jordana Brewster) is a pretty girl in Henry's class who enjoys wrapping boys around her little finger; it doesn't take long for her to notice he's smitten with her, and she begins flirting with him and getting him to do whatever she wants, even though she already has a boyfriend whom she has no intention of leaving. Meanwhile, Merna (Ashley Johnson), a cute girl who lives nearby, has a crush on Henry and is clearly a better match for him, but she can't get him to notice her, even after she starts dating an older boy to make him jealous. Nearing Grace received its world premiere at the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Rick Rosenthal
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Jun 18, 2005 Wide
- Studio
- Whitewater Films
Critic Reviews
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Ted Fry, Seattle Times
Moral dilemmas faced by immature teens is fine fare for young-adult fiction, but a movie that wants them to be taken as something bigger needs better management than Nearing Grace can provide.
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Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
The story here is as dog-eared as an old beach book, and about as deep.
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Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
The performances by Smith, Brewster and veteran David Morse, as a morbidly depressed widower, elevate Nearing Grace to something near grace.
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Luke Y. Thompson, Village Voice
...cinematic youth has rarely seemed so convincingly uncertain, and Brewster could definitely drive a young guy crazy.
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Michael Ordoņa, Los Angeles Times
Smart, funny and, thanks in no small part to David Geddes' cinematography, it occasionally approaches the poetic.
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Cast
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Gregory Smith
as Henry Nearing
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Jordana Brewster
as Grace Chance
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Ashley Johnson
as Merna Ash
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David Moscow
as Blair Nearing
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Chad Faust
as Lance
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Brian Doyle-Murray
as Clement C. Haydes
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Logan Bartholomew
as Tripp
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David Morse
as Shep Nearing
- Courtney Taylor-Taylor
- Sharon Lawrence