“We’ll just be here when they need us.”
A Little Prayer, directed by Angus MacLachlan, is a story of decisions and consequences. It plays out within a family that seems to be happy and caring. And, for the most part it is. Yet, there is a constant undercurrent of pain and struggle.
Bill Brass (David Strathairn) is a Vietnam vet who runs a company in Winston-Salem along with his son David (Will Pullen). David lives with his wife Tammy (Jane Levy) in a house behind Bill and his wife Venita’s (Celia Weston) house. Tammy starts each day and Bill’s house for breakfast and making lunches before the men go to work. All seems well, until Bill begins to notice unsettling behavior between David and the receptionist at work. Just as Bill begins fretting about that, Bill and Vanita’s daughter, Patti (Anna Camp) shows up with her daughter and everything she could carry after leaving her husband (again).
Bill is the focal point of the film. He has developed a sense of wisdom through the years. He can see that David is going down a dangerous road. It is obvious that Patti (even though a mother herself) needs to grow up. But his main worry is about Tammy, who seems to be loving, kind, and innocent. He doesn’t want David’s mistakes to hurt her.
Bill is a good-hearted man. He treats his workers to a night at the VFW hall each week (where he also schmoozes with other vets). Bill is genuinely hurt by seeing others suffering when he cannot help. He and Tammy are the only ones in the family who don’t complain about an unknown neighbor who sings loudly early each morning.
The film makes some interesting connections. In one scene, Vanita shows some tourists around the historical Moravian village, telling them about the graveyard where people were buried with no distinction of class or race or family, because in death everything is equal. The next scene shows Bill at a funeral talking to another vet who says past difference s with the deceased don’t matter. Also, the film is bookended by the French Christmas carol “Au Flambeau, Jennette, Isabella”, in a way that invites us to see all that we have seen in between as a place to find grace.
That grace is seen most clearly in the relationship between Bill and Tammy. Tammy defines that relationship as “kindred spirits”. There is a gentleness that comes through in all that they touch. While everyone in the film is dealing with choices, good and bad, Bill and Tammy are the two who see most clearly the cost of each decision.
I saw one description of this film as a portrait of a Southern family. What I found here was really a portrait of love—as well as of many of love’s counterfeits.
A Little Prayer is available to rent on various platforms.
Photos courtesy of Music Box Films.
