Dandelion (Mark Milgard, 2005)

Dir. Mark Milgard
Starring Vincent Kartheiser, Taryn Manning, Arliss Howard, Mare Winningham

Mark Milgard’s Dandelion is a confused mess of a film. It wants to do several things at once, but can’t seem to figure out which to focus on. There is the typical disaffected teen romance that the film is sold on. There is also the father-son morality play the filmmakers want to explore. Finally, we have a story with a mother and father stuck in a passionless marriage. With so many threads going on and a running time of only 93 minutes, Milgard is unable to make any of his stories dramatically compelling and the entire film suffers as a result.

Mason Mullich (Vincent Kartheiser) is a lonely teenager living in an empty town with nothing to do. His parents’ marriage is falling apart but neither of them seems to realize it. Danny (Taryn Manning) is his new neighbor with a mysterious past. Her initial scene is so lazy and clichéd that it was reminiscent of Jen’s first arrival in Dawson’s Creek. That’s not a very good sign for a movie that takes itself seriously. Mason and Danny begin to fall for each other, but the relationship gets sidetracked due to issues with his misguided father.

Dandelion struggles with the lack of a coherent vision. Milgard tries to make a point about how his teen characters are cut off from the real world, stuck in a boring town. In making his point, we get plenty of shots of the vast empty fields and deserted streets that surround the town. Unfortunately, his talented cinematographer seems a little too eager in showing off how beautiful he can shoot the landscape. Everything is focused with a bright, sunny glare that the town ends up looking like the most beautiful and pleasant place to live. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to leave.

The film takes several shots at the people that inhabit small towns. Mason’s father has a pending city council election, but the campaign signs designed by a local print shop accidentally misspell his name. Mason’s father goes into a rage and amazingly the film seems to take his side. The store clerk is treated as a dimwitted idiot (like all small town folk, right?), with a ridiculously misguided comment about offering a price reduction. There is nary a secondary character in the small town portrayed with any degree of empathy.

There is a bizarre narrative structure at play here. Just when the film begins developing the romance between Mason and Danny, a major twist takes place that causes the film to advance two years in the future. The romance is put on hold while Milgard decides to try out his secondary story about the relationship between father and son, and how that is strained by an excruciating moral decision made by Mason. Not a bad idea on its own, but the film doesn’t have enough time to spend on this section, which only distracts from the central romance. Both stories have the potential to be arresting, but the structure of the film prevents either of them from becoming emotionally relevant.

Dandelion is not a technically poor film. Tim Orr is one of the most talented cinematographers in independent films, having previously done superb work on George Washington and All the Real Girls. The ensemble cast is mostly solid. You get the sense that really understood their characters, and with better writing could have done a terrific job. There is an especially nice supporting performance from Mare Winningham as Mason’s mother. She has one incredible scene when she confronts her husband, suggesting yet another underdeveloped story thread that Milgard wanted to explore.

Ultimately, it is the thematic structure that ruins Dandelion. No matter how stupid they make the locals, or how deserted they make the town look, it stills seems like a beautiful place to live. The film also makes several points about how casual drug and gun use is in this town, which seems to be an odd idea. At one point, one of the characters leaves town on a train, presumably hoping for a better life in a big city. If they’re expecting the big city to be devoid of guns, drugs, and idiotic store clerks then they certainly have a surprise coming.

Grade: C-